Died on July 16, 1982 after shooting himself in the head with a rifle, Patrick Dewaere was at the heart of the documentary Patrick Dewaere, my hero broadcast on October 21, 2022 on France 5. Born in 1947 in Saint-Brieuc, Patrick was revealed to the general public in 1974 at the age of 27 in the film The Valseuses alongside Gérard Depardieu. Tormented from an early age, the man had been sexually abused when he was just a child. A heavy secret that he had entrusted to a few relatives including the actor Gérard Depardieu, Bertrand Blier but also Francis Huster. Nostalgic for his missing friend, the one who embodies Juste Leblanc in the film The stupid dinner confided with great emotion in the documentary: “I knew Patrick very well when we were at school. We talked to each other, we became friends and we joined together mainly becausewe were both raped when we were children. He carried his suffering all his life.“.
Father of Angèle Herry, born of his union with Miou-Miou and Lola Dewaere, fruit of his love with Elisabeth Malvina Chalier, Patrick Dewaere had also experienced a real trauma when he was only 17 when he learned that the he considered that his father was not really his real father.
In his sentimental life, the man has known many disappointments, especially with Elsa who would have left him to get into a relationship with his friend Coluche. Interviewed by Paris Match in 2010, his daughter Lola (born in 1979) explained: “Elsa told me that at that time she had gone to “drop out” in Guadeloupe at the invitation of Coluche. It was the first time that she hadn’t accompanied my father on a set. The afternoon of his death, my father spoke to my mother on the phone and asked her to come back, but she refused because, she told me, she still felt too fragile. […] I believe that after their telephone conversation, my father received another call. Someone told him that Coluche and my mother were together. I’m not blaming them: at the time, everyone had affairs with everyone. But, during this period without drugs, I think my father experienced it as the ultimate betrayal, Coluche being his best friend.“
Upset and heartbroken, Patrick Dewaere finally shot himself in the mouth while he was in his Parisian apartment in the 14th arrondissement located at Impasse du Moulin Vert.