Jean Rochefort

Jean Raoul Robert Rochefort 29 April 1930 9 October 2017 was a French actor He received many accolades during his career including an Honorary César in 1999 Rochefort was born on 29 April 1930 in Paris France to Breton parents Jean Rochefort was not born in Dinan but his parents were living there He was educated at the Lycée Pierre Corneille in Rouen Rochefort was nineteen years old when he entered the Centre dArt Dramatique de la rue Blanche Later he joined the Conservatoire National After completing his national service in 1953 he worked with the Compagnie Grenier Hussenot as a theatre actor for seven years There he was noted for his ability to play both drama and comedy He then became a television and cinema actor and also worked as director After some supporting roles in Cartouche Captain Fracasse and in Marvelous Angelique Rochefort played his first big role with Annie Girardot as his wife and Claude Jade as his daughter in Hearth Fires in 1972 In this drama he starred as a man who leaves his family for ten years before returning In this film he played at 41 years old a father of adult children the young Claude Jade was already 23 To appear older he grew a moustache his trademark which he later removed only once in 1996 for Ridicule Four years after Hearth Fires he was the leading star of the midlife crisis comedy Pardon Mon Affaire as a man who risks his married life with Danièle Delorme for an affair with Anny Duperey Thanks to the success of this film Rochefort became very popular In 1972 he starred opposite Pierre Richard as Chief of CounterEspionage Louis Toulouse in the Yves Robert comedy Le Grand Blond avec une chaussure noire a role he reprised in the 1974 sequel Le Retour du grand blond also directed by Robert In 1998 he starred as Fernand de Morcerf opposite Gerard Depardieu in the miniseries Le Comte de Monte Cristo In the eighties he became the narrator of the French version of Welcome to Pooh Corner replacing Laurie Main This made him popular with children at the time and Disney hired him to record several audio versions of their classic movies In the 1990s he returned to comedy with Les Grands Ducs where he played alongside two other actors of his generation with a similar career Philippe Noiret and JeanPierre Marielle He was set to play the lead role in The Man Who Killed Don Quixote after being found as the perfect Quixote by director Terry Gilliam Rochefort learned to speak English just for the part Unfortunately amongst other production problems he began suffering from a herniated disc Unable to film for months production was cancelled A documentary Lost in La Mancha was made about the failed production In 1960 he married Alexandra Moscwa with whom he had two children Marie 1962 and Julien 1965 With actressfilmmaker Nicole Garcia he also had a son Pierre Through his second marriage with Françoise Vidal he had two children Louise 1990 and Clémence 1992 Description above from the Wikipedia article Jean Rochefort licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia