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Bruno Cremer | |
|---|---|
 Cremer asJules Maigret in the1991 TV series | |
| Born | Bruno Jean Marie Cremer (1929-10-06)6 October 1929 |
| Died | 7 August 2010(2010-08-07) (aged 80) Paris, France |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Spouse(s) | Chantal Courrier |
| Children | 3 |
Bruno Jean Marie Cremer (6 October 1929 – 7 August 2010) was a Frenchactor best known for portrayingJules Maigret on French television, from 1991 to 2005.
Bruno Cremer was born inSaint-Mandé,Val-de-Marne, in the eastern suburbs ofParis, France to Belgian parents,[1][2] the youngest of three children in a middle-class family. His mother, Jeanne Rullaert, a musician, was of Belgian Flemish origin and his father, Georges, was a businessman fromLille who, though born French, had taken out Belgian nationality after the French armed forces refused to accept him for service in the Second World War.[3] His brother was the physician and academicGeorges-Alfred Cremer [fr] (1927-2013),[4] a member of theAcadémie nationale de médecine.[5] Bruno himself opted for French nationality when he reached the age of 18. His childhood was largely spent in Paris.
Bruno attended theCours Hattemer, a private school.[6] Having completed his secondary studies, he followed an interest in acting which had interested him since the age of 12 and trained in acting from 1952 at France's highly selectiveConservatoire national supérieur d'art dramatique (French National Academy of Dramatic Arts).
His career began with ten years spent acting in live theatre, playing roles drawn from works of Shakespeare,Oscar Wilde andJean Anouilh. Aged already 30, he created the role ofThomas Becket in the 1959 world premiere of Anouilh'sBecket, and heldAnouilh in veneration all his life. Later Cremer played Max in a French production ofBent byMartin Sherman in 1981. He regarded his basic profession as that of a stage actor, though he gravitated firmly to films.
It was in 1957 that Cremer had his first credited part in a film, Quand la femme s'en mêle (When a woman meddles), which starredAlain Delon. However, it was in 1965 that Cremer's career really began to prosper, with the filmLa 317e section, (The 317th Platoon), directed by Pierre Schoendoerffer and set in Indochina during the French colonial wars. From then onwards, Cremer became a popular actor and appeared in over 110 productions for cinema and television.
While Cremer tried to avoid labels and typecasting, he tended to be offered tough-guy roles, often military men. Examples from various points in his career includeSection spéciale (1975),La légion saute sur Kolwezi (1980) andLà-haut, un roi au-dessus des nuages (2004).
Special Section (French original title:Section spéciale), released in 1975, is about a kangaroo court set up in collaborationist Vichy France to ensure judicial convictions of innocent people so as to mollify the Nazis. AFrench language film directed by theGreek-French film directorCosta-Gavras, it features Cremer asLucien Sampaix, a Communist journalist.
The 1980 filmLa légion saute sur Kolwezi (EnglishOperation Leopard), directed byRaoul Coutard, is adocumentary-style portrayal of a real-life operation headed by theFrench Foreign Legion in theDemocratic Republic of the Congo in 1978 to rescue foreign hostages. Cremer plays a military commander.Pierre Schoendoerffer’s 2004 filmLà-haut, un roi au-dessus des nuages (Above the Clouds), based on his own novel,Là-haut. Cremer played the Colonel.
Some 30 other film parts of Cremer included releases by both French and foreign directors. In 1967, for example, came the filmThe Stranger (Italian:Lo straniero), directed by Italian directorLuchino Visconti, based on the novelL'Étranger byAlbert Camus, and starringMarcello Mastroianni.The 1976 releaseThe Good and the Bad (FrenchLe Bon et les Méchants) was directed byClaude Lelouch, with Cremer playing Inspector Bruno Deschamps.
The next year, 1977, came the thrillerSorcerer (FrenchLe Convoi de la peur), based onGeorges Arnaud’s novelLe Salaire de la peur and directed by aWilliam Friedkin fresh from the successes ofThe French Connection (1971) andThe Exorcist (1973). InSorcerer, Cremer played the fraudulent Paris banker Victor Manzon, starring alongsideRoy Scheider. In 1989 Cremer starred inJean-Claude Brisseau’s film dramaWhite Wedding (FrenchNoce Blanche) withVanessa Paradis.
From 1991, he became a universally known figure in France and elsewhere for his televised portrayal ofGeorge Simenon's Commissaire Maigret, a role he played until 2005, totalling 54 episodes. During this period his cinema film commitments were few, though he did appear in 2000 withCharlotte Rampling inUnder the Sand, written and directed byFrançois Ozon, in 2001 in José Giovanni'sMon père, il m'a sauvé la vie, and in 2004 inPierre Schoendoerffer’sLà-haut, un roi au-dessus des nuages (Above the Clouds).
In 2005, in the final episode of theMaigret series, his voice was dubbed by that ofVincent Grass inMaigret et l'Étoile du Nord: Cremer was suffering from the throat cancer that made him decide to end his career.
Cremer was made an officer of theLégion d’honneur in 2008.
A lifelong smoker ofPunch brandcigars, he died of a cancer of the tongue and the pharynx from which he had suffered for several years,[7][8][9] in a Paris hospital on Saturday, 7 August 2010, aged 80. His funeral service was held in Paris on 13 August 2010 at the church of Saint Thomas of Aquinas, in theVIIth arrondissement. He is buried in theMontparnasse Cemetery, Paris.
His part autobiography appeared in 2000 under the title,Un certain jeune homme (A certain young man). In it he covered not the whole of his life, but only his early career, until the death of his father.
Married twice, Cremer had a son, Stéphane, by his first wife, and two daughters, Constance and Marie-Clementine, by his second wife, psychiatrist Chantal Hillion, whom he married in 1984.
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