MICHAEL BOUQUET. Comedian Michel Bouquet died on Wednesday April 13, 2022 at the age of 96. According to Fabrice Luchini, he “wasn’t well” for a few weeks”.
18:04 – A multi-award winning actor
END OF LIVE. In addition to his two Césars and his two Molières, Michel Bouquet has received several recognitions for his work during his career. His interpretation of Molière’s Tartuffe earned him a Crystal Globe for best actor. He was also awarded the Grand Prix National du Théâtre in 1994, the Prix Plaisir du Théâtre in 1999 and the Lumière Award for Best Actor for “How I Killed My Father”. He was made Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor in 2018, after having received the distinctions of knights, officer, commander and grand official. Finally, in 2019, he was awarded the Gold Medal of the French Renaissance for his work in promoting culture.
17:56 – He performed with renowned directors in the theater
As in the cinema, Michel Bouquet has played in the theater with the greatest. He was Gérard Philippe’s classmate at the Conservatoire, before meeting Jean Anouilh and André Barsacq at the Théâtre de l’Atelier. When he joined the Théâtre National Populaire, it was with Jean Vilar that he cut his teeth.
17:43 – His unforgettable interpretation of “The King is dying”
“The King is Dying” by Eugène Ionesco was his favorite piece, he appropriated it so that it would be inseparable from his person in the minds of the public. It is indeed one of the scenes that Michel Bouquet played the most: in 1994, from 2004 to 2006 and from 2010 to 2014. His performance made him famous and even allowed him to win his second Molière of the actor, in 2005.
17:34 – Politicians pay tribute to Michel Bouquet
The death of Michel Bouquet this Wednesday April 13, 2022 reacts to anonymous people, film professionals, but also personalities from the political class. Emmanuel Macron was the first to hail “a sacred monster”, while the Minister of Culture Roselyne Bachot praised “his intensity, his passion for the texts and the infinite nuances of his playing”. Outside government, let’s also mention the tribute of Xavier Bertrand who judges that the actor “will be missed so much”, and that of Richard Ferrand, who thank him for “having made us vibrate so much”.
17:25 – Michel Bouquet explains his approach to his roles at INA
In an interview with the INA in 1993, Michel Bouquet explained the way in which he prepared his roles. Without annotation on the scripts, but by reading the text successively, looking for several ways to play and see the role offered to him, so that he “let himself be invaded” by his character, “without my needing to play it”. “It’s an exercise in polishing, refining and not having to interfere anymore. I like that the character surprises me and that he is a surprise”.
17:11 – Pierre Richard’s tribute to Michel Bouquet
The death of Michel Bouquet affects a whole generation of actors who have had the chance to shoot alongside him. Among them, Pierre Richard, who remembers on Twitter having shot two months by his side. “Which gift !” he writes on the social network of the blue bird. “Michael had [le cœur et le génie]. I am immensely saddened by his passing.”
16:57 – Michel Bouquet has toured with the greatest directors
Michel Bouquet is a theater actor but also a film actor, who has toured with renowned directors. We could see it in front of the camera of François Truffaut (The bride was in black, The Mississippi Mermaid), Claude Chabrol (The unfaithful wife, The Rupture), Jacques Deray (Borsalino), Henri Verneuil (The Serpent), Michel Audiard (Good kisses … see you Monday), Robert Guédiguian (Le Promeneur du Champ-de-Mars), Bertrand Blier (Les Côtelettes), Alain Corneau (Every morning in the world) or even Robert Hossein (Les Miserables).
16:46 – An actor at the service of authors
Michel Bouquet was a man of the theater, who did not hide his love of the text and the authors. With Ouest-France in 2013, he explained thus “to be interested in the lives of authors and their works, until having the feeling of being in their company”. For him, an actor is “a servant of someone else’s thought, a great butler who must constantly foresee what is in the minds of others, in order to satisfy the client to the end.”
4:35 p.m. – Alain Delon “deeply sad” following the death of Michel Bouquet
Asked by AFP, Alain Delon said he was “deeply sad” to learn of the death of Michel Bouquet this Wednesday, April 13, 2022. He called him a “very great actor”. “We shot several films including Two Men in the City and Borsalino. The only thing I have left are great and beautiful memories.”
4:24 p.m. – Roselyne Bachelot salutes the memory of Michel Bouquet
“His intensity, his passion for the texts and the infinite nuances of his playing have made Michel Bouquet an actor adored by spectators, like artists who have had the pleasure of working with him”, wrote Roselyne Bachelot on her Twitter account for pay tribute to Michel Bouquet. “I have a thought for all those who, like me, dreamed of being invincible.”
4:15 p.m. – The Caesars salute “an admirable and admired actor”
Among the tributes paid to Michel Bouquet, there is that of the Academy of Cinema Arts and Techniques, organizer of the Césars. “French cinema today loses an admirable and admired actor,” she wrote in a tweet. Michel Bouquet had obtained two César, in 2002 and 2006.
15:56 – Who is Michel Bouquet’s wife?
Since 1970, Michel Bouquet has been married to the actress Juliette Carré in second marriage. Since then, they have not left each other, whether in the city or on stage. They have indeed played together on many occasions, Juliette Carré being a theater actress. She notably performed in “The imaginary patient”, “The miser” or even “The king is dying”. His last performance on the boards dates back to 2016, in the play “A torts et à raison”. She replied to her husband.
15:47 – Was Michel Bouquet sick?
Little information on the state of health of Michel Bouquet before his death is communicated this Wednesday, April 13, 2022. At the microphone of Pascal Praud on RTL, Fabrice Luchini reveals however that he “was not going very well” for a few months, which resulted in his hospitalization. The actor is careful, however, to make more revelations about his illness, simply stating that he “began to no longer be in control of all his memories”. However, we had seen him recently at the cinema, since he played in “Villa Caprice”, released in 2021.
15:34 – For Anne Hidalgo, a “sacred monster of cinema and theater” has left us
Tributes to Michel Bouquet rain since the announcement of his death this Wednesday noon. Among the voices who wanted to speak to salute his memory, let us mention that of Anne Hidalgo. In a tweet, the mayor of Paris hailed “a sacred monster of cinema and theater, whose life could be summed up in one verb: to play.” “The stage was his kingdom, the texts of the greatest authors his companions. Michel Bouquet will remain for us this insatiable actor.”
3:16 pm – Fabrice Luchini salutes the memory of “one of the great, great, great actors”
Fabrice Luchini had boundless admiration for Michel Bouquet. At the microphone of RTL, the actor paid tribute to the one he considered “one of the great, great, great actors”. “He was a monk, absolute, of sacrifices, of his personal life, to try to restore the message of the authors he had the ambition to embody. He had this unique diction in the history of the theater, and he had this beautiful voice.” For Fabrice Luchini, it is “the greatest French theater actor” who left us this Wednesday.