
Michel Piccoli
Born December 27, 1925 · Paris, Ile-de-France, France
Michel Jacques Daniel Piccoli was the son of Henri Piccoli, violinist and Marcelle Expert-Bezançon (1892-1990), pianist and daughter of the French industrialist and politician Charles Expert-Bezançon. In 1954, Michel Piccoli married actress Éléonore Hirt with whom he had a daughter, Anne-Cordélia Piccoli. In 1966, he married the singer Juliette Gréco, then in 1978 the screenwriter Ludivine Clerc, with whom he adopted two children of Polish origin, Inord and Missia. Placed in an establishment for problem children, the commitments of the young Piccoli, are made in opposition to his maternal grandfather, senator of the Third Republic, financier of the Radical Party, and important industrial painter, accused by the trade union left and by Georges Clemenceau, of having intoxicated his workmen through lead white which causes lead poisoning. Michel Piccoli then trained as an actor first with Andrée Bauer-Théraud and then during Simon. After an appearance as an extra in "Sortilèges" by Christian-Jaque in 1945, Michel Piccoli made his film debut in "Le Point Du Jour" by Louis Daquin. In the theater he distinguished himself with the Renaud-Barrault and Grenier-Hussot companies as well as at the Théâtre de Babylone. Noticed in the film "French Cancan" in 1954, he continued on stage and worked with directors Jacques Audiberti, Jean Vilar, Jean-Marie Serreau, Peter Brook, Luc Bondy, Patrice Chéreau and André Engel, and became also know in popular TV movies. Having become an atheist after a family bereavement, he met Luis Buñuel in 1956, and ironically took on the role of a priest in "La Mort En Ce Jardin". In 1959, he shot "Le Rendez-Vous De Noël", a short film by André Michel based on the short story by Malek Ouary "Le Noël Du Petit Cireur", in Algiers. The 1960s sounded his consecration, noticed in "Le Doulos" by Jean-Pierre Melville, he was revealed internationally with "Le Mépris" by Jean-Luc Godard alongside Brigitte Bardot. From then on, he toured with the greatest French and international filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock, Luis Buñuel, Youssef Chahine, Manoel de Oliveira... He began the 1980s with the interpretation prize at the Cannes festival in 1980, with "Le Saut Dans Le Vide" by Marco Bellocchio, and that of the Berlin festival in 1982, with "Une Étrange Affaire" by Pierre Granier-Deferre. . He worked with Jacques Doillon, Leos Carax, before trying his hand at directing. In 2001 he received the IX Europe Prize for Theatre. He was part of the jury of the 60th Cannes Film Festival in 2007, chaired by Stephen Frears. In 2011, he played in "Habemus Papam" by Nanni Moretti. The last film in which Michel Piccoli appears is the film "Le Goût Des Myrtilles", by Thomas de Thiers in 2013. Politically committed to the left, member of the Peace Movement (communist), Michel Piccoli distinguished himself by his positions against the National Front, and mobilized for Amnesty International. Michel Piccoli died on May 12, 2020 following a stroke in his mansion in Saint-Philbert-sur-Risle in Eure. His funeral takes place in Évreux on May 19, 2020, where he is cremated, his ashes are scattered within the family property.
Notable Appearances
Movies
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The Phantom of Liberty

Atlantic City

To Each His Own Cinema

Adieu Philippine

Diary of a Chambermaid

Actors

Danger: Diabolik

Hauteclaire

Seven Deaths by Prescription

Mauvais Sang

Going and Coming Back

Genealogies of a Crime

That Night of Varennes

We Have a Pope

The Beaches of Agnès

The Things of Life

Loving in the Rain

Le Doulos

Max and the Junkmen

The Milky Way

Cesar and Rosalie

I’m Going Home

Lines of Wellington

La TV des 70's : Quand Giscard était président

May Fools

The Last Woman

The Assassination

The Black Angel

The Prize of Peril

Nathalie

One Hundred and One Nights

Woman in Chains

The Passerby

Masquerade

The Witches of Salem

Death in the Garden

Themroc

Shock Troops

Dom Juan

Death in a French Garden

The World of Jacques Demy

Raining Cats and Frogs

French Cancan

The Creatures

Little Girl in Blue Velvet

A Room in Town

Lady L

Liza

How Good the Whites Are

Little Lili

Le Bal des casse-pieds

Success Is the Best Revenge

Coming Apart

Spy, Stand Up

Long Live Life

The War Is Over

Belle Toujours

The Children Thief

Party

The Young Girls Turn 25

Boxes

Brigitte Bardot: The Icon of France

The Diary of an Innocent Boy

The Eyes, the Mouth

Paparazzi

Touch and Go

Vincent, Francois, Paul and the Others

La Voleuse

Dangerous Moves

Wedding in Blood

The Life of Mirrors

Leonor

The Grand Manoeuvre

The Prodigal Daughter

The Taste of Blueberries

The Day and the Hour

The Game Is Over

A Leap in the Dark

Malady of Love

Godard by Godard

The Sleeping Car Murders

Parisienne... Parisiennes

Chance at Love

Don't Touch the White Woman!

Godard's Passion

Amazons of Rome

Far West

Sunday Buddies

The Accuser

Heartbeat

Spoiled Children

Ten Days' Wonder

One Way or Another

Ousmane Sow

París-Tombuctú

The Infernal Trio

Marco Ferreri: Dangerous But Necessary

Marx Can Wait

The Perfume of the Lady in Black

Climates of Love

Mado

The Veiled Man

Rencontre Unique

That Day

Weak Spot

Without Leaving an Address

On War

You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet

The Woman in Blue

Dillinger Is Dead

Strange Affair

La Chevelure

The Savage State

Will the High Salaried Workers Raise Their Hands!

Claude Sautet, Romy, Yves, Michel et les autres

La Belle Noiseuse: Divertimento

Lest We Forget

The Happiest Place on Earth

The Dust of Time

Everything's Connected

Brook by Brook

La Cerisaie

Tykho Moon

Il était une fois... Vincent, François, Paul et les autres

Speaking of Buñuel

The Nonentity

Rene the Cane

Elsa the Rose

Adieu Bonaparte

The Duchess of Langeais

Life Size

Atrocious Tales of Love and Death

The Audience

Walking a Tightrope

The Mark of the Day

Daughters of Destiny

Loonies at Large

My Brother-in-law Killed My Sister

The Incredible Mr. Piccoli

Agnès Varda: From Here to There

Hello Cubans

The Uninvited

Danger in the Middle East

François Mitterrand & Anne Pingeot: Pieces of a Love Story

The Bit Between the Teeth

Un divertissement et Michel Piccoli

Saint-Tropez, devoirs de vacances

Fire's Share

Sinners of Paris

Beaumarchais the Scoundrel

Portrait Of My Father

Sugar

From Time to Time

Nothing About Robert

Beyond the Door

Chicago Digest

The Emigrant

The Supper

La dragée haute

The General of the Dead Army

Romy Schneider, étrange étrangère

All About Loving

Horizons...

The Dinosaur and the Baby

A Man, a Real One

Rendezvous

The Voyage Into the Whirlpool Has Begun

La Rumba

Libero Burro

Claude Chabrol, the Maverick

My Love, My Love

Blanc de Chine

Le Matelot 512

La Nuit de Tom Brown

Magic Mirror

Le Coup de grâce

Our Lady of Hormones

Bardot et Godard

Ernst Thälmann – Leader of the Working Class

Romy, A Free Woman

Confused Feelings

Bad Liaisons

Le Quadrille des diamants

The Fate of Baron Leisenbohg

Traveling Companion

Beast at Bay

Croissance de Paris

The Prude

Passion in the Desert

L'Été en hiver

The Distant Land

Un coupable

Le Bel Âge

Le Divorcement

2 x 50 Years of French Cinema

Scénario du film Passion

The Devil's Tricks

The Bardot mystery

Gardens in Autumn

Tout chante autour de moi

Everything's Fine, We're Leaving

Price of Love

The Price of Survival

Once Upon a Time… Contempt

Marie Soleil

F as in Fairbanks

Martha and I

La Ruelle au clair de lune

Romy: Anatomy of a Face

Invasion

Train de nuit

Kiarostami in Close up

Les paradoxes de Buñuel

Tabarin

The Bellman

Beneath the Rooftops of Paris

Luis Buñuel : Un cinéaste de notre temps

Otar Iosseliani, le merle siffleur

Délire à deux

Les Joueurs

La Lune


























