Philippe Noiret (October 1, 1930 – November 23, 2006) was a French film actor.
One of French cinema's most familiar faces of the second half of the 20th century, he appeared in more than 100 films in a career that spanned more than fifty years and also included forays into Italian cinema. His screen debut was an uncredited role in the first adaptation of Colette's Gigi in 1949 (not that one). He won two César Awards for Best Actor, one in 1976 for Le Vieux Fusil and one in 1990 for La Vie et rien d'autre.
He passed away from metastatic cancer at age 76 on November 23, 2006.
Selected filmography:
- Zazie dans le Métro (1960) as Uncle Gabriel
- Le Capitaine Fracasse (1961) as Hérode
- Cyrano & D'Artagnan (1964) as King Louis XIII
- The Night of the Generals (1967) as Inspector Morand
- Topaz (1969) as Henri Jarré
- Murphy's War (1971) as Louis Brezan
- La Grande Bouffe (1973) as Philippe
- My Friends (1975) and My Friends Part 2 (1982) as Giorgio Perozzi
- Le Vieux Fusil (1975) as Julien Dandieu
- The Judge and the Assassin (1976) Judge Emile Rousseau
- Who is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? (1978) Jean-Claude Moulineau
- Coup de Torchon (1981) as Lucien Cordier
- The Man Who Planted Trees (1987) as the narrator (French version)
- Cinema Paradiso (1988) as Alfredo
- Return of the Musketeers (1989) as Cardinal Mazarin
- Uranus (1990) as Watrin
- Rossini! Rossini! (1991) as Gioachino Rossini
- Revenge of the Musketeers (1994) as d'Artagnan
- Les Grands Ducs (1996) as Victor Vialat
- Dragonheart (1996) as Draco (French dub)
- On Guard (1997) as Regent Philippe d'Orléans
Tropes & Trivia in his works:
- The Cavalier Years: He's played in a number of period pieces set in 17th century France. His roles in such films included several Historical Domain Characters such as King Louis XIII, Regent Philippe d'Orléans (twice), Cardinal Mazarin and d'Artagnan (the Alexandre Dumas novels version in the latter case).
- Fake Nationality: He ventured into Italian cinema as well, and played a number of Italian characters even though he was French (he did not speak Italian and had to be dubbed).
- What Could Have Been: He was among the actors in talks to play Claude Lacombe in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The role went to film director François Truffaut in the end.
