Philippe Noiret is an immense, larger than life figure who has brought colour and character to French cinema for over half a century, a man who has come to epitomise all that is best in French culture, a man who combines charm and sophistication with an endearing common touch.  With his engaging persona, distinctive deep voice, intelligent, soulful eyes, he brings humanity, humour, and a considerable amount of class to any film he appears in.  Philippe Noiret loved life, loved his profession and loved cinema, and in return he was loved by millions – millions who appreciated his great skill as an actor and his warmth as a human being.  If French cinema were a family, he would have to be the favourite uncle, the one who could be depended upon to gladden the heart whenever he came to visit.

The story of Philippe Noiret has a very humble beginning.  He was born on 1st October 1930, in the northern French town of Lille.  His circumstances were modest and, having failed his school exams several times, he took drama lessons. In 1953, he joined Jean Vilar’s repertory company, the Théâtre National Populaire, where he worked alongside another actor who would enjoy a high profile film career, Gérard Philipe.  Whilst working for the TNP, Noiret played more than forty roles (in plays such as Macbeth and The Marriage of Figaro) and met his future wife, Monique Chaumette, whom he married in 1962.  At this time, he performed a successful cabaret act with Jean-Pierre Darras.

Noiret’s film career effectively began in 1956, when he starred in Agnès Varda’s film La Pointe courte.  It wasn’t until the 1960s that he began to be noticed – in such films as Louis Malle’s anarchic comedy Zazie dans le metro (1960), Georges Franju’s Thérèse Desqueyroux (1962) and Jean-Paul Rappeneau’s La Vie de château (1966).  Noiret’s big break-through came with Yves Robert’s 1967 comedy Alexandre le Bienheureux, in which the actor played a daydreaming peasant farmer, one of his most popular roles.  By this time, Noiret had given up his stage work to concentrate on an increasingly successful film career.

In the 1970s, Philippe Noiret appeared in a number of memorable films, including La Vieille fille (1971), L’Horloger de Saint-Paul (1973), L’Attentat (1972), Tendre poulet (1978), Le Juge et l’assassin (1975) and the controversial black comedy La Grande Bouffe (1973).  His most notable achievement in that decade was to win the Best Actor César in 1976 for his leading role in Robert Enrico’s box office hit Le Vieux Fusil (1975).

The actor’s remarkable range was evident in the 1980s, when he took on an amazingly diverse spectrum of roles, encompassing anarchist colonialist ( Coup de torchon, 1981), sociopathic TV host (Masques , 1987), a schizoid killer ( L’Etoile du nord, 1982), and much more.  He was paired with Thierry Lhermitte in Les Ripoux (1984), a popular comedy which had two sequels, and won a second César for his portrayal of a military man in La Vie et rien d’autre (1989).  His most successful international film of the decade was Cinema Paradiso (1988), in which he played a loveable small-town projectionist.  This was one of a number of films which Noiret made for Italian cinema in the 1980s.

In the 1990s, Noiret starred in one of the decade’s most popular films, Il Postino (1994), in which he played a Chilean exile who gives lessons in poetry to a postman.   Other notable roles include an ageing Musketeer in Bertrand Tavernier’s La Fille de d’Artagnan (1994), a gay TV executive in André Téchiné’s J’embrasse pas (1991), a tyrannical stage actor in Le Roi de Paris (1995) and a self-obsessed university functionary in the Madame Curie biopic, Les Palmes de M. Schutz (1997).  He also resumed his stage career, starring in Bertrand Blier’s 1997 production, Les Cotelettes, which was subsequently made into a film.

Noiret’s film career continued unabated into the new millennium, in spite of the fact that the actor was now into his seventies; his most memorable appearance was in Michel Boujenah’s poignant comedy drama Père et fils (2003).   In May 2000, Gilles Jacob awarded Noiret the "Trophée du meilleur ouvrier de France”.  His final role was in Trois amis (2007), again directed by Michel Boujenah.

After a full career spanning more than fifty years and over 120 films, Philippe Noiret finally succumbed to a cancer-related illness.  He died on 23rd November 2006, at his home in the South of France, aged 76.  Within hours of the news being announced, his immense contribution to French culture and cinema were being aired in all media throughout the world.  Friends, colleagues and politicians were as one in proclaiming him as one of the great artistic figures of our time, a man whose hard work and talents made him one of French cinema’s most widely respected actors.  The legacy of films that Philippe Noiret leaves behind will doubtless entertain, inform and inspire many generations to come.  His was a truly great career.

© James Travers 2006