French
film
legend
and
amateur
race
car
driver
Jean-Louis
Trintignant,
who
earned
acclaim
for
his
starring
role
in
the
Oscar-winning
film
"A
Man
and
a
Woman" half
a
century
ago
and
went
on
to
portray
the
brutality
of
aging
in
his
later
years,
has
died.
He
was
91.
Trintignant
died
in
his
home
in
southern
France,
according
to
Bertrand
Cortellini,
who
operated
a
vineyard
with
the
actor
and
visited
him
Thursday
before
his
death.
He
did
not
divulge
details.
French
news
reports
said
Trintignant
had
prostate
cancer.
In
a
career
that
started
when
he
was
19,
Trintignant
appeared
in
more
than
100
films.
He
was
one
of
France's
premier
actors
in
the
post-war
era
and
one
of
the
last
remaining
performers
of
his
generation.
Tributes
poured
in
after
his
death
was
announced
Friday.
France's
national
Cinematheque
museum
called
him
"one
of
the
greatest
actors
in
the
history
of
French
cinema".
Born
December
11,
1930
in
Piolenc
in
southern
France,
near
where
he
died,
Trintignant
started
out
acting
in
the
theater
but
gained
broader
fame
in
cinema,
notably
starring
with
Brigitte
Bardot
in
"And
God
...
Created
Woman" in
1956.
The
two
had
an
unabashed,
off-screen
love
affair
that
shocked
many.
He
described
turning
to
acting
to
overcome
intense
shyness.
An
actor
"is
to
be
a
blank
page,
starting
from
nothing,
from
silence.
From
there,
you
don't
need
to
make
a
lot
of
noise
to
be
listened
to," he
was
quoted
as
saying
in
Le
Monde.
He
starred
in
Italian
films
and
several
films
by
legendary
French
director
Claude
Lelouch,
most
famously
"A
Man
and
a
Woman" in
1966,
which
won
the
Oscar
for
best
foreign
film.
Trintignant
played
a
race
car
driver
—
a
passion
he
pursued
off-screen
—
in
a
complex
romance
alongside
Anouk
Aimee.
Trintignant
stopped
performing
for
nearly
a
decade
after
the
loss
of
his
daughter
Marie,
also
an
actor,
in
2003.
Her
boyfriend,
popular
French
singer
Bertrand
Cantat,
beat
her
to
death
during
a
dispute
in
a
hotel
room
in
Lithuania,
where
she
was
making
a
film.
Trintignant
continued
acting
on
stage
and
on
screen
into
his
80s,
and
earned
new
international
attention
in
Michael
Haneke's
2013
Oscar-winning
drama
"Amour",
a
raw
depiction
of
an
aging
couple
and
the
ravages
of
Alzheimer's
on
their
love.
In
his
final
role
on
film,
Trintignant
reunited
with
Lelouch
and
Aimee
in
"The
Best
Years
of
a
Life",
in
2019.
Among
survivors
are
his
wife
Mariane
Hoepfner,
a
former
race
car
driver,
and
his
son
Vincent
Trintignant
and
grandson
Jules
Benchetrit,
also
actors.