Death of Jean Yanne
A heart attack has robbed French cinema of one its most popular and talented veterans, Jean Yanne, who died on Friday 23 May aged 69.
His passing coincides with the Cannes Film Festival, an event where Yanne’s caustic humour was revealed to international audiences, winning him the best actor award in 1973 for Nous ne vieillirons pas ensemble by Maurice Pialat. Yanne, who began his acting career in 1964, worked with some of French cinema’s greatest directors, including Claude Chabrol, Régis Wargnier, Michel Deville, Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Audiard, Christophe Gans, Claude Lelouch and Constantin Costas-Gavras. Jean Yanne was often called on to play frankly unlikable characters. He also directed several satires including the hugely popular Deux heures moins le quart avant Jésus-Christ in 1982.
Tributes to Yanne flooded in from all sectors of French culture, lead by President Jacques Chirac who underlined “Yanne’s unique sense of humour and his generosity” and culture minister Jean-Jacques Aillagon, Cannes Festival president Gilles Jacob and CNC DG, David Kessler.
(Translated from French)
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