Jean-Louis Trintignant left us after leading a life as extraordinary as it was painful, punctuated by bereavement. He left to join his darling daughter, Marie, at the age of 91. His death was reported by his family to AFP on June 17, 2022.
Born in Vaucluse in 1930, Jean-Louis Trintignant moved to Aix-en-Provence to study law. He quickly realizes that his destiny is elsewhere and goes to Paris to become an actor and becomes the pupil of Charles Dullin and Tania Balachova. After which, in 1951, he began a small career.
Jean-Louis Trintignant made his real film debut in 1956 in If all the guys in the world by Christian Jacques. The same year, he shared the bill with Brigitte Bardot of And God created the womanthe masterpiece of Roger Vadim. His career took off but, in 1958, he was mobilized in Algiers where he served the French army until the end of the Algerian war.
In 1966, Claude Lelouch chose him to play opposite Anouk Aimée in the mythical A man and a woman. The same year, he played in the very political Z, by Costa Gavras, which earned him the Interpretation Prize at Cannes in 1969. From then on, he would shoot in a hundred films for both authors and the general public. In 1980, tired of the world of cinema, he retired to his property in Uzès near Avignon.
First married to actress Stéphane Audran, he then married director Nadine Trintignant in 1960. Before their divorce in 1976, the couple had 3 children: Marie, born in 1962 and killed by her companion Bertrand Cantat in 2003, Pauline, born in 1969 and victim of sudden infant death syndrome nine months later and Vincent, born in 1973.
Suffering from prostate cancer, the French cinema giant had made the decision not to undergo chemotherapy. On the sidelines of his illness, Jean-Louis Trintignant never really recovered from the death of his daughter Marie. “It cannot be cured. For fifteen years, it has completely dejected me. I died fifteen years ago, with her (…) There are many things that make me think of Marie. I am even a little embarrassed, because sometimes it’s even a little too hot. I had a close relationship with Marie (…) When she was a child, she was magnificent”, he confided in FREE ENTRANCE in December 2018.