French actor Michel Piccoli dies at 94

Michel Piccoli, the legendary French actor, died on May 12, 2020, at age 94, following a cerebral incident. He passed away surrounded by his wife Ludivine and their children Inord and Missia. The news was announced by Gilles Jacob, former President of the Cannes Film Festival and close friend, who co-wrote a 2015 book with Piccoli. Born in Paris in 1925, Piccoli debuted in cinema at 20 with a small role in Christian-Jacque's "Silenziosa follia." He later worked with Jean Renoir on "French Cancan" and began a notable collaboration with Luis Buñuel, starring in "La selva dei dannati," "Bella di giorno," and "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie." His partnership with Italian director Marco Ferreri produced "Dillinger è morto" and "La grande abbuffata," alongside Mastroianni, Noiret, and Tognazzi. Piccoli's most famous role was in Jean-Luc Godard's "Le Mépris" (Contempt), based on Alberto Moravia's novel, playing a screenwriter adapting The Odyssey. He also worked with Claude Sautet, Claude Chabrol, Alain Resnais, and Agnès Varda, appearing in her 1995 film "Les cent et une nuits." For Marco Bellocchio's "Salto nel vuoto," Piccoli won the Best Actor award at Cannes. In the 2000s, he starred in Nanni Moretti's "Habemus Papam." Piccoli was also a celebrated stage actor, describing theater as a "dangerous seduction" in a 2005 interview. He declined Hollywood offers, calling American cinema "a gigantic, self-referential machine" and preferring France's diverse film landscape.