Paris– The French actor Michel Blanc, who became well known in his country for his comic role as the character Jean-Claude Dusse in ‘The Bronzed‘ in 1978, he died of a heart attack at age 72.
The information, initially revealed by Paris Match magazine and later confirmed by Blanc’s press officer to the BFMTV channel, caused a great stir in France, where his work had been recognized and distinguished, in particular with a Caesar in 2012 for his work on ‘L’Exercice de l’État’.
His career in the world of entertainment had begun in the 1970s at Le Splendid, a café-theater in the Montparnasse neighborhood of Paris, especially with roles as a sympathetic loser in comedies.
The one that truly established him was that of Jean-Claude Dusse in ‘Les Bronzés’ and then in ‘Les Bronzés font du ski’, a supposedly clumsy and somewhat desperate flirtation.
After the enormous popular success of that series, Blanc wanted to take a turn and changed register first with ‘Tenue de soirée’ (1986), by Bernard Blier, a dramatic comedy in which he represented a man who discovered his homosexuality, and which earned him the award for best performance at the Cannes Festival.
In the 1980s and 1990s he was involved in films of a diverse nature and acted for foreign directors such as Peter Greenaway (‘Prospero’s Books’), Robert Altman (‘Prêt-à-porter’) or Roberto Benigni (‘Le Monstre’).
Blanc also directed several films, such as ‘Marche à l’ombre’ in 1984. In 2002 he achieved his first major commercial success behind the camera with the comedy ‘Embrassez qui vous voudrez’, which had more than a million admissions in France.
A prelude to what would come later with ‘Les Bronzés 3’ (10 million admissions) and ‘Je vous trouve très beau’ (3.3 million).
After the award at the 2012 Césars for ‘L’Exercice de l’État’, by Pierre Schoeller, a political story, he returned to comedy.
He wrote with Pascal Chaumeil ‘Un petit boulot’ (2016), a police comedy, and acted in some great productions such as ‘Les Nouvelles Aventures d’Aladin’ (2015) or ‘Raid dingue’ (2016), by Dany Boon.
