The actor André Wilms, known for his numerous collaborations with the Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki (Le Havre, The Other Side of Hope), of which he was the favorite actor, died Wednesday at the age of 74, his agent told AFP on Thursday February 10. The reason for his death, which occurred in a Paris hospital, was not communicated by his family, said his agent Sébastien Perrolat. André Wilms had agreed to several upcoming engagements, he said.
Born in 1947, he left his native Alsace around the age of 20 after a plasterer’s CAP. Direction Toulouse where he is hired as a bender at the Sorano Theater, founded by Maurice Sarrazin. He is quickly spotted, and becomes an extra. Attracted by the boards, he then went up to the capital, where he worked with German directors like Klaus Micheal Grüber and Heiner Goebbels.
He also met André Engel, who invited him to several of his productions, such as Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, or modern hotel according to Franz Kafka. There, he learns the requirements of the trade before turning thereafter to the 7th Art.
Theater and film actor, stage director, André Wilms made himself known to the general public above all by playing the father of the Le Quesnoy family, Catholic and austere, in Life is a long calm river (1988), first film and success in theaters by Étienne Chatiliez, then moviegoers thanks to the tragicomic films of Aki Kaurismäki.
Together they turned The bohemian life (1992), Leningrad Cowboys meet Moses (1994), Juha (1999), Le Havre (2011), The Other Side of Hope (2017). Films marked by lunar characters and poetic dialogues, with a certain tenderness for the characters.
In Le Havre, André Wilms was a shoe shiner, reaching out to a young undocumented African. The film was awarded the 2011 Louis-Delluc prize, considered the Goncourt of cinema. The Other Side of Hope orchestrated the meeting between a Syrian migrant stranded against his will in the Finnish grayness and a restaurant owner separated from his alcoholic wife.
André Wilms laughed when asked about the operation of a set whose boss does not speak the language: “Great directors don’t need to talk! He would say to me: “Play like an old gentleman. Do not run. Don’t Spill Anything “…Everybody Runs in Movies Today”. Aki is one of the few directors who doesn’t take actors for illiterates, although there are a lot of them”.