Claude Brasseur

Son of Pierre Brasseur and Odette Joyeux.

After having taken comedy lessons with Raymond Girardet and studied at the Conservatory, Claude Brasseur performed on the stage in 1954 in the plays Judas by Marcel Pagnol and Bon appétit messieurs by Elvire Popesco. He then made his film debut by filming under the direction of Georges Lampin in Rencontre à Paris (1956) and Marcel Carné in Le Pays From Where I Come (id.).

After a three-year break during which he officiated as a parachutist (1956 - 1959), he returned to the seventh art by giving the reply to Jean Gabin in Rue des prairies (1959) by Denys de La Patellière and by being confronted with his father in the fantastic film Les Yeux sans visage (1960) by Georges Franju. But his notoriety really took off with the television film The Mystery of the Yellow Room (1965), where he played reporter Joseph Rouletabille, and the television series Les nouvelles aventures de Vidocq (1971), in which he played the title role. At the same time, he worked with young filmmakers who were already very talented: Jean-Luc Godard (Bande à part, 1964), Costa-Gavras (Un homme de trop, 1967) and François Truffaut (Une belle fille comme moi, 1972).

Appearing in the credits of the thrillers Les Seins de glace (1974) and L'Agression (1975), Claude Brasseur knows the consecration with the cinema with the two "films of friends" An elephant, that deceives enormously (1976), which is worth to him the César for Best Supporting Actor, and We'll All Go to Heaven (1977). This growing popularity is confirmed with the success of The War of the Police, a thriller thanks to which he won a new César, in the Best Actor category this time, and of the two parts of The Boom where he takes the features of the sympathetic father of the young Vicky (Sophie Marceau).

At the height of his career, Claude Brasseur demonstrated versatility, alternating film genres with great ease. Incarnation on the screen of Guy de Maupassant (1982), this regular of the Paris-Dakar rally likes to interpret the antiheroes cheeky and a bit adventurous: father in mourning and doubting the virtues of self-defense in Légitime violence (1982 ), determined commissioner in La Crime (1983), drunken writer and lover of Sophie Marceau in Descente aux enfers (1986), looser and high roller in Taxi boy (id.), leader of a communist spy network in L'Orchestre red (1989) or even fifty years old adrift in Sale comme un ange (1990).

In the 1990s and 2000s, the actor became more discreet on the screens, turning sparingly and sometimes limiting himself to simple appearances as in Le Bal des casse-pieds (1992), Un, deux, trois, soleil (1993 ), Les Acteurs (2000) and Chouchou (2003). However, he was named to the César for Best Actor for his performance as Fouché in Le Souper (1992) by Edouard Molinaro and continues to play prominent characters such as the industrialist Pied-Noir in L'Autre Côté de la Mer (1996). , the diplomatic police officer of Fait d'Hiver (1998) and the authoritarian prison guard of La Taule (1999).

In 2004, the veteran actor found Jacques Villeret on screen, his partner in the play Le Diner de cons, for the needs of the drama Malabar Princess, and illustrated the following year in tasty and sympathetic supporting roles for the popular comedies L'Amour aux trousses, Fauteuils d'orchestre and Camping. He is also part of the impressive cast (Catherine Deneuve, Gérard Lanvin, Emmanuelle Béart ...) that Thierry Klifa brings together for his second feature film (Le Héros de la famille). In 2007, he starred in a first film, the dramatic comedy Les Petites Vacances, in which he found Bernadette Lafont to whom he had given the reply in Un Clair de lune à Maubeuge (1962) and Une Belle fille comme me (1972). The same year, he changes register by participating in the critical and financial sinking of Jean-Jacques Annaud: His Majesty Minor.

After a few calmer years, he returned to Fabien Onteniente's campsite in 2010 and distinguished himself in several TV films. A year later, he returned to the thriller by being a mentor for Jean-Paul Rouve in Légitime defense. The two men got along very well on the set, the actor offers Claude Brasseur a role in his second production, touching him When I will be small (2012). A benevolent grandfather in My Good Star, he shows more roughness at Jean-Pierre Mocky's for Le Renard jaune and shows character in The Student and Monsieur Henri, before leaving for the third time at Camping des Flots Bleus.