Michel Blanc
Michel Blanc was a French actor, writer and director. He is noted for his roles of losers and hypochondriacs. He is frequently associated with Le Splendid, which he co-founded, along with Thierry Lhermitte, Josiane Balasko, Christian Clavier, Marie-Anne Chazel and Gérard Jugnot. He also appeared in more serious roles, such as the title role in the Patrice Leconte film Monsieur Hire.
Life and career
Michel Blanc came from a modest family background; being the only son of Marcel, a removals man and Jeanine Blanc, a typist. His parents cosseted him when it was discovered shortly after birth that he had a heart murmur. He attended the Lycée Pasteur in Neuilly-sur-Seine, where he met Gérard Jugnot and the two became friends and later professional colleagues. He also met Marie-Anne Chazel, Christian Clavier, Thierry Lhermitte and Josiane Balasko in those school years, the group later becoming the Le splendid troupe.Blanc's breakthrough role was in Les Bronzés, a 1978 comedy about French holidaymakers seeking romance at a resort in Cote d'Ivoire. Blanc’s character, Jean-Claude Dusse, an awkward bachelor who just cannot manage to seduce women. Blanc feared, after two Les Bronzés sequels, that he might become typecast as "a lovable deadbeat". Blanc extended his range with serious film roles, theatre work, screen-writing and film direction. He declined to direct Une petite zone de turbulences in 2009 while nonetheless preparing the screenplay and starring.
Blanc began his directing career with the comedy Marche à l'ombre, starring alongside Gérard Lanvin in 1984. The sharp dialogue and the contrast between the main duo assured the film a great success that year with over 6 million cinema entries.
Blanc commented in 2010 "I’m very wary about forming habits when it comes to film-making, and art in general". In terms of his working methods as a writer, in adaptating a novel or text for a screen play he was wary of losing the original style, and he hated snipping scenes he liked. "So I always work the same way. I write. Then I leave it alone three weeks before reworking it. At that point, it’s no longer the book I’m adapting, but my script. For A Spot of Bother I wrote five different versions, then Alfred worked on my final version to make his shooting script."
Michel Blanc translated and adapted several English-language plays for the French stage, such as Je veux faire du cinéma in 1992 by Neil Simon, Temps variable en soirée in 1996 after Alan Ayckbourn, Espèces menacées in 1997 by Ray Cooney, La Chambre bleue in 1999 by David Hare, La Valse à Manhattan in 2001 by Ernest Thompson, L'amour est enfant de salaud in 2003 by Alan Ayckbourn, Frankie et Johnny au clair de lune in 2004 after Terrence McNally and Tantine et moi in 2005 after Morris Panych.
A devotee of classical music since childhood, in 2004 he gave the premiere of the monodrama for speaker and orchestra by Eric Tanguy, Sénèque, dernier jour in Paris with the Orchestre National de Bretagne. Blanc also wrote the text for Tanguy's theatrical work, Photo d’un enfant avec une trompette, for the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, which had its premiere during the theatre’s 2013-2014 season.
As an actor he was sometimes dubbed a "sad clown" in the press, but he said this missed the mark. He told the French media and culture periodical Télérama "I'm not a sad clown at all, I'm a worried clown".
Blanc is one of a few people to have won awards at the Cannes Film Festival in both a creative and performing role, winning the Male Acting Prize in 1986 for Antoine in Tenue de Soirée, and the Best Screenplay Prize for Grosse Fatigue in 1994.
Blanc died of cardiac arrest, during a medical examination, at Saint-Antoine Hospital, Paris, on 3 October 2024, at the age of 72.
Filmography
As an actor
Cinema
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Director | Notes |
| 1977 | Au théâtre ce soir | Sandy Remington | Pierre Sabbagh | TV series |
| 1978 | Les héritiers | Ivan Chaulard | Pierre Lary | TV series |
| 1978 | Madame le juge | Colomar | Philippe Condroyer | TV series |
| 1978 | Le temps d'une République | The second officer | Michel Wyn | TV series |
| 1979 | Pierrot mon ami | François Leterrier | TV movie | |
| 1979 | Les 400 coups de Virginie | The antiquarian | Bernard Queysanne | TV mini-series |
| 1979 | Histoires insolites | Inspector | Maurice Ronet | TV series |
| 1979 | Les enquêtes du commissaire Maigret | Crotton | Yves Allégret | TV series |
| 1981 | Histoire contemporaine | Ernest de Bonmont | Michel Boisrond | TV mini-series |
| 1981 | Les enquêtes du commissaire Maigret | Belloir | Yves Allégret | TV series |
| 1982 | Le mystère du gala maudit | Bernard Lion | TV movie | |
| 1982 | Les enfants du rock | A classmate | Jean-Noël Roy | TV series |
| 1983 | Après tout ce qu'on a fait pour toi | Pierre | Jacques Fansten | TV movie |
| 1983 | Merci Bernard | Various | Jean-Michel Ribes | TV series |
| 1988 | Palace | Inspector | Jean-Michel Ribes | TV series |
| 1988 | Un jour à Rome | Gilbert | Roger Guillot | TV series |
| 1988 | Médecins des hommes | Philippe | Alain Corneau | TV series |
| 2003 | L'affaire Dominici | Inspector Sébeille | Pierre Boutron | TV movie |
| 2004 | 93, rue Lauriston | Inspector Blot | Denys Granier-Deferre | TV movie |