Michel Serrault

Born on January 24, 1928 in Brunoy, in the south of France, in the bosom of a humble, very religious family, Serrault initially had a priestly vocation, for which he entered a seminary, although he was never ordained. He ended up opting for show business, so he became part of a theater company and ended up putting on a cabaret number, with his friend the actor and screenwriter Jean Poiret , with whom both reaped great success in the best venues in France. Serrault makes his film debut in a very brief role in the comedy Ah! the beautiful bacchantes! , and then appeared as a janitor in Las diabólicas. Although from that moment on he did not lack work, Serrault always said that for 20 years he was limited to accepting any role, although he often worked in second-rate films. “I consider that all those works were exercises in style, since they were tests that I was forced to do directly on the screen.” Even so, he is saved from burning some film, such as The American Beauty , The Warrior’s Rest and Other People’s Money .

Michel Serrault’s career began to take off when the aforementioned Poiret wrote the play ‘La cage de las locas’, which swept the stages, starring both of them. In 1978, Edouard Molinaro directed the film version, Small Vices , where Serrault shared the lead with Ugo Tognazzi . It was so successful that the sequels immediately arrived, titled in Spain La cage de las locas (1980) and La cage de las locas: ellas se casar . Although from then on he was often offered more comedies, such as A Quarter to Two Hours Before Jesus Christ , he strove to prove his worth for drama ( Garde à vue , L’ibis rouge) and intrigue ( The Ghosts of the Chapelier , Do Not Wake the Sleeping Policeman ). He never left the theater, as he was successful on stage with performances of works such as ‘El avaro’, which he starred in in 1986. In 1958 he married Juanita, with whom he had two daughters, although the eldest died in a car accident in 1977. Little is known about his private life, since he was always a discreet man, although it is a known fact that he always kept the faith.

Starting in the 1990s, Serrault had become an icon for French directors, who gave him memorable roles. In 1997 he starred in Claude Chabrol ‘s No More , where he was a veteran con man who toured France with his partner, played by Isabelle Huppert . In Claude Sautet ‘s Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud , he is an older man who passes on his memories to a young woman in debt. In Beaumarchais, the insolent , he played the monarch Louis XV. The actor did an especially memorable job in The Girl from Paris , where he played a widowed, somewhat curmudgeonly farmer who is forced to live with a young woman. His last major work wasMerry Christmas , where he had a supporting role. He never retired from the screens, because a few months before he died, Pars vite et reviens tard , a thriller, by Régis Wargnier , was released . Even the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has sent his condolences to the widow, describing Serrault as a “monument of theatre, cinema and television” and specifying that his filmography “has marked each of the citizens French”.