RIP Jean Piat

Jean Piat, the death of an honest man

The actor who wanted to remembered as an "honest man" will remain however forever the bad nephew and seducer of Mahaut d'Artois in "The cursed Kings". By Brigitte Hernandez

9/19/2018

He arrived, richly dressed in a red cloak, and the screen of our televisions seemed too small to contain the immense Count Robert d'Artois, a fabulously devious and conquering character of Maurice Druon's Les Rois maudits saga. And the fascination began. Jean Piat, who died on Tuesday at the age of 93, will remain forever the man with a thousand plots, the evil doer, fabulous devil seducer, the bad nephew of Mahaut d'Artois, embodied by the genial Hélène Duc. This "soap opera" was one of the biggest hits of public television and the great member of the Comédie-Française, brilliant in this role, put everyone on their knees.

For this comedian who could boast of 27 years of "French" was one of those great men of theater who knew how to seduce, convince, play his superb, powerful self carried by a voice recognizable among all, low, hot, divinely placed, never failing. He liked to say that his life had taken place in three acts: Act 1 the Comédie-Française, Act II the Comédie-Française, Act III the Comédie-Française.

He arrived there in 1947 after learning his trade at the mercy of what was happening during the war - he almost even enlisted in a tour in Germany for the STO, the mandatory service, but the commitment was canceled at the last minute - playing all that one proposed to him, even passing auditions in front of Pierre Fresnay and Louis Jouvet, the latter offering him a tasty sketch that he tells in these last memories And ... you play again! (Flammarion). Faced with the "Boss", the youngster of 21 years does not lead wide. "Let's go, my little fellow. What are you going to tell us? "The Barber," says Piat."... from Seville? Perfect ! Let's go cheerfully! Let's not waste our time! After listening to him, Jouvet answers: "It's not bad, it's not bad, you do not have anything?" And so on, Beaumarchais and Marivaux pass and Jouvet seems to appreciate what he hears, but:" I have nothing for you my little man, but come back to see me! Jouvet will die before giving him a role, but Jean Piat will keep a dazzling memory all his life, as if he had been knighted by this king of the theater.

Originally from Lannoy (like the family of President Roosevelt) in the North, Jean Piat will live his childhood and adolescence in Paris. He discovered the drunkenness of the stage ... at age four: during the show of the distribution of prizes, he had this reply to say: "like rats ..." which earned him a lot of applause. The "rat" remained all his life a symbol of luck, he was engaged to the French during a year of the Rat, according to Chinese astrology ...

"To play well is to lie! But to play well is to be sincere. So to be sincere is to lie well "

It is in his 4th high school Janson-de-Sailly that pupil Piat, not attracted by museums or music, chooses the theater option. He discovers Hugo and Ruy Blas , the great texts, the love of words, the power to say and say well. The theater chose him and even before having really followed a training, he plays, plays, plays ... On the advice of a director, in 1944, he goes to the competition of the Conservatoire, he is admitted in the class of the famous Madame Dussane, a class deemed to be that of the "eccentric classics", that of Robert Dhéry, Sophie Desmarets and Jacques Charon. Dussane likes him a lot, which does not prevent him from flanking him a good slap in response to the "Shit" that Piat let go, "unable to follow his instructions". This did not stop them from building a strong friendship.

The conservatory! He should have gone out of his way, laureate, instead he was fired for non-compliance: he was filming without permission. But the Comédie-Française caught him all the same: in 1947, he auditioned with his barber. Robert Manuel holds the role of Figaro breaks his ankle and Piat is summoned to replace him." You are ready? Asked the administrator. Piat: "I know the first scene "And? "Okay, I'm doing it. The actor has three days to learn his text. "It was little, but I was 23 years old! Thus will begin the greatest adventure of his life.

When asked to define the art of acting comedy, Piat replied, greedy: "It's solving an equation. To play well is to lie! But to play well is to be sincere. So to be sincere is to lie. He did not hesitate to say that to do well, you should learn all the major roles when you are young, because it is not the age that makes the character, but the maturation, the experience of life and the scene. He gave Cyrano as an example, that he learned very early French: "When I played it again at ... 75 years, I had the feeling to dominate the role, finally! "Let's add that he played his Cyrano nearly 400 times and that at the first in 1964, the delirious public made more than fifty reminders.

Admirer of Guitry

One of his great admirations was Sacha Guitry, whom he loved to quote as soon as he could and play it too, with delight. The great Sacha telephoned him one day at his beginnings to the French to invite him to meet him. He made it turn, among others, in his Napoleon where poor Piat had to go back to it three times to give the good "ouh-ouh" that he had to launch to warn of his presence. His love for this master (as it was called Guitry) never failed and Piat paid tribute to him in a very nice show De Sacha Guitry. He also devoted a book to him, I love you Monsieur Guitry. Better than good ...

The Comédie-Française allowed him to play a vast repertoire, from the valets Sganarelle, Figaro, to Don Cesar by Ruy Blas , Cyrano of course, but also Feydeau, Jules Romains who took the time to teach him alone the role he destined him. He left the French in 1972 to shoot the famous kings cursed under the direction of director Claude Barma. He found his great partner of the French, Louis Seigner. This role of Count Robert d'Artois brought him consecration and popularity with an audience unaccustomed to the Richelieu Hall.

The cinema was a missed rendezvous. Jean-Pierre Melville wanted it for his film Arsène Lupine, but the director died before the end of the shoot. Luis Buñuel gave him a small role in “The Milky Way”, but his contributions to the 7th art were mainly limited to the dubbing of Scar in “The Lion King” or “Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings”, characters to whom he lent his voice to great intonations.

Jean Piat confessed that he had been attracted by the song, but fortunately the theater was the strongest. When he took over the role of Jacques Brel in “Man of the Mancha”, he considered this adventure a challenge and took singing lessons. The show which received a good reception could not hold long the poster. In 2016, he decided to tell his big roles on the boards. But at age 91, if the body let go, Piat was still like the great seductive actor. In these pieces of identity, he continued "this long conversation with the public" since his entry at the Comédie-Française.

He lived a great believer, convinced that his mother, who died at age 46, continued to protect him and direct him to the right choices. From the union with his wife Francoise Engel, he had two daughters, Martine and Dominique, and the latter had adapted with his father L'Affrontement and La Maison du Lac, two great successes in the private theater. The playwright Françoise Dorin, who died in 2018, was his companion for more than forty-five years and wrote several plays, the last of which, How old are you? He was then 88 years old and still thought that the scene was the best possible shaping. To the question, "What do you want God to say to you when you face Him? He replied, "You have been honest. "Jean Piat, honorary member of the Comédie-Française, to whom his" House "had paid tribute in 2008, wanted to follow all his life only one path, that of the honest man, so dear to Molière.

Among the works written by Jean Piat: The Plumes of Peacocks, Plon 1980; Silences and Words, Flammarion 1998; I like you, Mr. Guitry , Plon 2002; Beaumarchais, an intermittent performer, Plon 2004; And ... you play again! (with François d'Orcival), Flammarion, 2015; You will not have the last word! Small, casual anthology of the most beautiful distributed (with Patrick Wajsmann), Albin Michel 2016.

Born: 9/23/1924, Lannoy, Nord, France

Died: 9/16/2018, Paris, Ile-de-France, France

Go West: A Lucky Luke Adventure – 2007 [French voice of Spike Goodfellow]