Trintignant was born on 11 December 1930[1] inPiolenc, Vaucluse.[2] He had a brother four years older. During World War II, his father joined the resistance against the Nazi regime by aiding Jews, and his mother began an affair with a Nazi officer. This horizontal collaboration affected Jean-Louis his entire life.[1]
He grew up with the intention of studying law and enrolled inAix-Marseille University. However, he soon discovered an interest in acting and moved to Paris at the age of 20 to study drama, making his theatrical debut in 1951.[2][3]
After touring in the early 1950s in several theater productions, his first motion picture appearance came in 1955, and the following year he gained stardom with his performance oppositeBrigitte Bardot inRoger Vadim'sAnd God Created Woman. Trintignant's acting was interrupted for several years by mandatory military service.[4] After serving inAlgiers, he returned to Paris and resumed his work in film.[4] He had the leading male role inClaude Lelouch's filmA Man and a Woman (Un homme et une femme, 1966), which was the most commercially successful French film internationally for some years.
In 1994, he starred inKrzysztof Kieślowski's final film,Three Colors: Red. For the remainder of his career, he took an occasional film role but focused on stage work. After a 9-year gap, Trintignant came back to the screen forMichael Haneke's filmAmour.[6] Haneke sent Trintignant the screenplay, which had been written specifically for him.[7] Trintignant said he chose film projects on the basis of the director and said of Haneke that "he has the most complete mastery of the cinematic discipline, from technical aspects like sound and photography to the way he handles actors". He worked with Haneke again in 2017 when he starred inHappy End.[7]
On 20 July 2018, Trintignant announced his retirement from cinema,[8] but, in March 2019, he accepted a role in Claude Lelouch's filmThe Best Years of a Life (Les plus belles annees d'une vie), a follow-up toA Man and a Woman and its sequelA Man and a Woman: 20 Years Later.[9][10][11]
Trintignant came from a wealthy family. He was the nephew of racecar driver Louis Trintignant, who was killed in 1933 while practising on thePéronne racetrack inPicardy.[12] Another uncle,Maurice Trintignant (1917–2005), was aFormula One driver who twice won theMonaco Grand Prix as well as the24 hours of Le Mans. Jean-Louis himself was an enthusiastic amateurrally driver and competed in a number of high-level rallies in the 1970s and 1980s, including several rounds of theWorld Rally Championship;[13] he finished first in his class in the 1981Monte Carlo Rally.[14] Raised in and around automobile racing, Trintignant was the natural choice of film directorClaude Lelouch for the starring role of a racecar driver in the 1966 filmA Man and a Woman. He suffered a leg injury from a motorbike accident in June 2007.[15]
His first wife was actressStéphane Audran. His second wife,Nadine Marquand, was an actress, screenwriter, and director. They had three children: Vincent, Pauline (who died ofcrib death in 1969), andMarie Trintignant (21 January 1962 – 1 August 2003). At age 17 Marie performed inLa terrazza alongside her father and later became a successful actress. She was killed at age 41 by her boyfriend, rock musicianBertrand Cantat, in a hotel room inVilnius, Lithuania.[16]
In 2018, Trintignant announced that he was diagnosed withprostate cancer and would not be seeking treatment.[17] In November 2021, it was reported that he was gradually losing his sight and was in declining health.[18] Trintignant died at his home on 17 June 2022, at the age of 91.[2][19]
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