Background
Noiret, Philippe was born on October 1, 1930 in Lille, France. Son of Pierre and Lucy (Heirman) Noiret.
Noiret, Philippe was born on October 1, 1930 in Lille, France. Son of Pierre and Lucy (Heirman) Noiret.
Educated in Lycee Jansonde-Sailly, Paris and College, des oratoriens, Juilly.
The list cannot be complete, but it includes the major works, the films one would most like to see and those that deserve to be seen over and over: Gigi (48, Jacqueline Audry); Olivia (50, Audry); Agence Matrimoniale (53, Jean-Paul Le Chanois); La Pointe Comic (55, Agnes Varda); the transvestite uncle in Zazie (60, Louis Malle); Le Rendezvous (61, Jean Delannoy); Tout I Or du Monde (61, René Clair); the husband in Thérèse Desqueyroux (62, George Franju); Louis XIII in Cyrano el d'Artagnan (64, Abel Gance); Lady L (65, Peter Ustinov); La Vie de Chateau (66, Jean-Paul Rappeneau); Qui Etes-Vous, Polly Magoo (66, William Klein); Tendre Voyou (66, Jean Becker); Les Sultans (67, Delannoy); The Night of the Generals (67, Anatole Litvak); L’Une et l'Antre (67, René Allio); Woman Times Seven (67, Vittorio De Sica); Alexandre le Bienheureux (68, Yves Robert); The Assassination Bureau (69, Basil Dearden); Mister Freedom (69, Klein); Justine (69, George Cukor); and Clérambard (69, Robert).
Ambiguity was now so ingrained in his nature, it is to be regretted that he worked only once for Hitchcock in the flawed Topaz (70). Then he did Les Caprices de Marie (70, Philippe tie Broca); A Time for Loving (71, Christopher Miles); Les Aveux les Plus Doux (71, Edouard Molinaro); Murphy’s W’ar (71. Peter Yates); La Mandarine (72, Molinaro); as the TV producer in L’Attempt (72, Yves Boisset); Le Serpent (73, Henri Verneuil); La Grande Bouffe (73, Marco Ferreri); Touche Pas la Femme Blanche (74, Ferreri); hunched and quiet as the father in The Watchmaker (74, Bertrand Tavernier); Le Secret (74, Robert Enrico); Le Jeu avec le Feu (75, Alain Robbe-Grillet); as Philippe of Orleans, extrovert and upstanding in Let Joy Reign Supreme (75, Tavernier); as the man who seeks vengeance against the Nazis in Le Vieux Fusil (75, Enrico); Amici Mei (76, Mario Monicelli); the judge in The Judge and the Assassin (76. Tavernier); Coup de Foudre (76, Enrico); Tendre Poulet (78. de Broca); Le Témoin (78, Jean-Pierre Mocky); Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? (78, Ted Kotcheff); Un Taxi Mauve (78, Boisset); A Leap into the Void (79, Marco Bellocchio); and Death- watch (79, Tavernier).
On a Volé la Caisse de Jupiter (80, de Broca); A Week's Vacation (80, Tavernier); Pile on Face (80, Enrico); Three Brothers (81, Francesco Rosi); as the Jim Thompson sheriff from Pop. 1280 transferred to French West Africa in Coup de Torchon (81, Tavernier); Fort Saganne (84, Alain Corneau); Le Cop (84, Claude Zidi); L'Eté Prochain (85, Nadine Trintignant); Speriamo Che Sia Femmina (85, Monicelli); Masques (87, Claude Chabrol); as a homosexual in Gli Occhiali Ora (87, Giuliano Montaldo); La Famiglia (87, Ettore Scola); Young Toscanini (88, Franco Zeffirelli); Cinema Paradiso (89, Giuseppe Tornatore); outstanding as the major who clerks for the dead in Life and Nothing But (89, Tavernier); Faux et Usage de Faux (89, Laurent I feynemann); Ripoux Contre Ripoux: Le Cop 2 (89, Zidi); Di Menticare Palermo (90, Rosi); Uranus (90, Claude Berri); J’Embrasse Pas (91, André Téchiné); Max et Jeremie (92, Claire Devers); and Tango (93, Patrice Leconte).
He played himself in Grosse Fatigue (94. Michel Blanc); D’Artagnan in La Fille d’Artagnan (94, Tavernier); a huge international hit with II Postino (94, Michael Radford); Les Milles (94, Sebastien Grail); Le Roi de Paris (95, Dominique Maillet); Facciamo Paradiso (95, Monicelli); Les Grands Ducs (96, Leconte): Fantôme avec Chauffeur (96. Gerard Oury); La Veilleur de Nuit (96, de Broca); Marianna Ucria (96, Roberto Faenza); Les Palmes de M Schütz (97, Claude Pinoteau); Soleil (97, Roger Hanin); as Philippe d'Orléans in Le Bossu (97, de Broea); Le Pique-nique de Lulu Kreutz (00, Didier Martiny); Un Honnête Commerçant (02, Philippe Blasbard); On Gnard (02. de Broca).
Member Screen Actors Guild.
For over forty years, Noiret has averaged three films a year. They are not all good, or explicable.
He has had his fling in English-language films and done well enough. But he looks to American eyes like a character actor, damned by his own casual unobtrusiveness.
He is akin to Robert Mitchum in that, after decades of professional assignment, very little luss, and no large claim on grandeur, he emerges as one of the medium’s treasures, a man whose enormous versatility is managed almost without a trace and certainly without strain. One may list a few “greatest” performances—for Tavernier, Ferreri, or even in Cinema Paradiso—but really it is the body of work that is powerful. Past sixty now, Noiret can only mean more as he comes to his generation of “old man parts.”
Married Monique Chaumette, 1962. 1 child, Frederique.