Noiret was born inLille, France, the son of Lucy (Heirman) and Pierre Noiret, a clothing company representative.[1] He was an indifferent student and attended several prestigious Paris schools, including theLycée Janson de Sailly. He failed several times to pass hisbaccalauréat exams, so he decided to study theater. He trained at the Centre Dramatique de l'Ouest and toured with the Théâtre National Populaire for seven years, where he metMonique Chaumette, whom he married in 1962. During that time he developed a career as a nightclub comedian in a duo act withJean-Pierre Darras, in which he playedLouis XIV in an extravagant wig opposite Darras as the dramatistJean Racine. In these roles they satirized the politics ofCharles de Gaulle,Michel Debré andAndré Malraux.
Noiret's screen debut (1949) was an uncredited role inGigi. In 1955 he appeared inLa Pointe Courte directed byAgnès Varda. She said later, "I discovered in him a breadth of talent rare in a young actor." Sporting apudding-basin haircut, Noiret played a lovelorn youth in the southern fishing port ofSète. He later admitted: "I was scared stiff, and fumbled my way through the part—I am totally absent in the film." He was not cast again until 1960 inZazie dans le Métro. After playing second leads inGeorges Franju'sThérèse Desqueyroux in 1962, and inLe Capitaine Fracasse, fromThéophile Gautier's romantic adventure, he became a regular on the French screen, without being cast in major roles untilA Matter of Resistance directed byJean-Paul Rappeneau in 1966. He became a star in France withYves Robert'sAlexandre le Bienheureux.
"When I began to have success in the movies," Noiret told film criticJoe Leydon at theCannes Film Festival in 1989, "it was a big surprise for me. For actors of my generation—all the men of 50 or 60 now in French movies—all of us were thinking of being stage actors. Even people likeJean-Paul Belmondo, all of us, we never thought we'd become movie stars. So, at the beginning, I was just doing it for the money, and because they asked me to do it. But after two or three years of working on movies, I started to enjoy it, and to be very interested in it. And I'm still very interested in it, because I've never really understood how it works. I mean, what is acting for the movies? I've never really understood."[2]
Noiret was cast primarily as theEveryman character, although he did not hesitate to accept controversial roles, such as inLa Grande Bouffe, a film about suicide by overeating, which caused a scandal at Cannes in 1973, and in 1991André Téchiné cast Noiret inJ'embrasse pas (I Don't Kiss), as a melancholy old homosexual obsessed with young male flesh. And in 1987, inThe Gold Rimmed Glasses based onGiorgio Bassani's novel about the cramped social life of post-warFerrara in Italy, he played an elderly and respectable doctor who is gradually suspected of being a covert homosexual with a passion for a beautiful young man (Rupert Everett). Noiret won his firstCésar Award for his role inVieux Fusil in 1976. His second César came in 1990 for his role inLife and Nothing But.
Noiret was a passionate horseman, and found solace on horseback. He often shared the passion with actor friends Jean Rochefort and Jean-Pierre Marielle.
By the time of his death fromcancer in Paris in 2006, aged 76,[4] Noiret had more than 100 film roles to his credit. He often joked with interviewers about his virtually non-stop work schedule, tellingJoe Leydon in 1989: "You never know what will be the success of a film. And it's always comfortable to be making another film when you're reading terrible notices for your last film. You can say, 'Well, that's a pity, but I'm already working on another job.' It helps in your living. You see, if you're only making one film a year, or one film every year and a half, it's hard. Because when it's a failure, what do you do? What do you become? You're dead."[2]
