“He wasn’t a star, but he was one of those supporting roles that we remember,” Philippe Laudenbach’s son told France 3 Occitanie. His father, a film and theater actor since the 1960s, has just died at the age of 88 at Rangueil hospital in Toulouse, after battling several cancers. He retired to Lherm, in Haute-Garonne in 2021, after having appeared in more than a hundred films and series.
The actor, born in 1936 in Bourg-la-Reine (Hauts-de-Seine), trained at the National Superior Conservatory of Dramatic Art in Paris. In 1963 he shot his first feature film, Muriel ou le temps d’un retour, under the direction of Alain Resnais.
Although he was never selected for leading roles, he toured under the direction of most of the major figures of the New Wave. “He played with the greatest directors,” testifies his son, “Alain Resnais for the film My Uncle from America (1983), François Truffaut with Vivement Dimanche (1983), crowned best film at the Césars, and even Bertrand Blier.” He also starred with Claude Lelouch in Viva la vie! (1984), Bertrand Blier in Notre Histoire or with Claude Sautet in Few days with me (1988).
During his sixty-year career, the actor worked alongside Gérard Depardieu in Rive Droite, Rive Gauche (1984), Jean-Hugues Anglade in Jean-Jacques Beineix’s film 37°2 le matin (1986), Lambert Wilson in Les Caprices of a river (1996) or Didier Bourdon in Bouquet final (2008).
Comfortable in comedy, he found himself alongside Isabelle Carré, Benoît Poelvoorde and Pierre Niney in Comme des Frères in 2012. He will also participate in the filming of Barbecue (2014), La Loi de la jungle (2016), Marie -Francine or even Ibiza (2019). In a more dramatic register, he starred in Of Men and Gods, the film by Xavier Beauvois awarded at Cannes in 2010, and took part in the filming of War Is Declared (2011) by Valérie Donzelli. In 2010, he was made a knight of the National Order of Merit.
From the big to the small screen, Philippe Laudenbach plays in numerous series: Maguy, Joséphine, ange garde, Louis la Brocante, Avocats et associés, PJ, Candice Renoir, Braquo and Scènes deménage.
The actor also made his mark on the stage, notably in 1970 in Le Nouveau Locataire by Eugène Ionesco, in 1971 in Mon Faust by Paul Valéryou and again in 1986 in Les Mains sales by Jean-Paul Sarthe. He was nominated for a Molière award in 1998 for his performance in Le Bonnet du fou by Luigi Pirandello.
Philippe Laudenbach was “an old-fashioned actor”, his son declared to France 3 Occitanie: “He was discreet, always far from rhinestones and sequins, he never put himself forward. This is perhaps why he was always given supporting roles and villain roles,” he concludes. He appeared on screen one last time in 2020, in De Gaulle, directed by Gabriel Le Bomin.