Michel Bouquet was one of the greatest actors of his generation. His stature, his talent, his ease and his sensitivity have inspired the big names in today’s stage and cinema. Muriel Robin the first. The 66-year-old comedian and actress was devastated by the disappearance of this myth which saved her life: “After the Conservatory, I told him that I was going back to Saint-Etienne because this job was not for me. We were walking on the boulevards, I held his arm, and he said to me: “It’s out of the question.” Later, I was already filling Zeniths, and I said that I was stopping. He said to me: “You don’t have the right, it’s a duty.” I listened to him. He kept me from dying. He was a father, a landmark. I’m incredibly lucky and once again, happy and honoured, that Michel Bouquet is interested in me, it’s because I might be worth something. For someone who has no self-confidence, like me, it really prevents dying“ she declared to Franceinfo.
Muriel Robin is not the only one to have expressed her grief on learning of the death of Michel Bouquet on April 13. On social networks, the world of Culture had paid tribute to the artist. Franck Riester, ex-minister, greeted “a giant of the French scene“, Roselyne Bachelot, who succeeded him, evoked “an actor adored by viewers.” Emmanuel Macron had called the missing actor a “sacred monster.” A fact on which Fabrice Luchini could only agree. As he said it so well, Michel Bouquet was “the actor who counted the most for [lui]”: “It’s the best meeting of my life. He taught me the power of the voice, the power of submission to the author, silence, mastery of technique, humor.“He obviously didn’t have the heart to laugh today.