Jean-Claude Brialy

Jean-Claude Brialy (30 March 1933 – 30 May 2007) was a French actor and film director.

Early life Brialy was born in Aumale (now Sour El-Ghozlane), French Algeria, where his father was stationed with the French Army. Brialy moved to mainland France with his family in 1942. He was an alumnus of the Prytanée National Militaire. When he was 21 years old, he went to Paris to work as an actor.

Career In 1956, Brialy acted in his first role in the short film Le coup du berger (Fool's Mate) by Jacques Rivette.

By the late 1950s, he'd become one of the most prolific actors in the French nouvelle vague and a star. He appeared in films of nouvelle vague directors such as Claude Chabrol (Le Beau Serge, 1958; Les Cousins, 1959), Louis Malle (Ascenseur pour l'échafaud, 1958; The Lovers, 1958), François Truffaut (The 400 Blows, 1959), Jean-Luc Godard, (A Woman Is a Woman, 1961), Éric Rohmer (Claire's Knee, 1970), as well as in films of other filmmakers such as Jean Renoir (Elena and Her Men 1958), Roger Vadim (Circle of Love, 1964), Philippe de Broca (King of Hearts, 1966), Luis Buñuel (The Phantom of Liberty, 1974), and Claude Lelouch (Robert et Robert, 1978).

Accustomed to supporting roles, he starred in Le Beau Serge in 1957, La Chambre ardente in 1962, Carambolages in 1963, L'Année sainte (with Jean Gabin) in 1976, and Julie pot de colle the following year, but never managed to establish himself as a leading man like Alain Delon or Jean-Paul Belmondo. He made up to ten films a year in the 1960s.

In 2006, he appeared in his last role, as the eponymous character of the TV film Monsieur Max, directed by Gabriel Aghion.

Brialy directed a number of films, including Églantine in 1971, which was loosely inspired by his own memories of a happy childhood spent in Chambellay with his grandparents, and Les volets clos (Closed shutters) in 1972.

Personal life and death Brialy, in 1959, acquired a château in the commune of Monthyon, near Paris. There, he accommodated and entertained many friends from the cinema and the theatre, such as Jean Marais, Pierre Arditi, and Romy Schneider whom he'd met during the 1958 production of the film Christine. Schneider, after the 1981 fatal accident of her son David, found a "refuge from the paparazzi" in Brialy's home.

In his books, the autobiographical Le Ruisseau des singes (The river of monkeys) (2000) and the memoir J'ai oublié de vous dire (I Forgot to Tell You) (2004), Brialy revealed that, despite early affairs with women, he was gay.

Brialy died on 30 May 2007, in his Monthyon home, after a long time with cancer. He bequeathed his Monthyon estate to the commune of Meaux, near Monthyon, with the following codicil: that the Meaux authorities would finance the estate's maintenance as long as his partner, Bruno Finck (1962-2021), would reside there.

Honours Commander of the Order of Cultural Merit (November 2002)

Filmography

As actor

As director Eglantine (1972) Closed Shutters (1973) A Rare Bird (1973) Loving in the Rain (1974) La nuit de l'été (1979) Les malheurs de Sophie (1981) Cinq-Mars (1981) A Good Little Devil (1983) Vacances bourgeoises (1996) Georges Dandin de Molière (1997) La dame aux camélias (1998) with Cristiana Reali and Michaël Cohen Les parents terribles (2003)