Jean Louis Trintignant.

Two of Trintignant’s films, Z 1969 and Amour 2012, were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar and both won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Ten of Trintignant’s films competed for the Palme d’Or at Cannes, including A Man and a Woman 1966 and Amour 2012, which both won. Z 1969 earned him the Best Actor prize at Cannes.

Trintignant jokingly suggested the epitaph I told you I was ill, the same as on comedian Spike Milligan’s tomb, for his own grave.

His acting career was interrupted by military service in Germany for a couple of years.

Trintignant and ex-wife Stéphane Audran appeared in three films together after their divorce: Les Biches 1968, Without Apparent Motive 1971, and Boulevard des assassins 1982. They never worked together while married.

During the filming of Il sorpasso 1962, Trintignant often discussed performing Hamlet with co-star Vittorio Gassman, who had played the role. Trintignant later performed Hamlet on stage but was criticized by reviewers.

Both Anouk Aimée for A Man and a Woman 1966 and Emmanuelle Riva for Amour 2012 received Oscar nominations for Best Actress playing opposite Trintignant. In both films, their characters were named Anne.

Having grown up around auto racing, Trintignant was Claude Lelouch’s natural choice to play a race car driver in A Man and a Woman 1966.

In 1969, Trintignant starred in two of the nominees for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar: Z and My Night at Maud’s.

Trintignant narrated the French version of The White Ribbon 2009 as the school teacher as an old man. This was his first work with director Michael Haneke.

In 1968, Trintignant won the Silver Bear for Best Actor for The Man Who Lies, while his ex-wife Stéphane Audran won the Silver Bear for Best Actress for Les Biches, in which he also appeared.

Trintignant replaced Franco Nero as the lead in The Great Silence 1968. Director Sergio Corbucci made the character mute because Trintignant could not speak English. Trintignant later called this role his favorite.

Trintignant was nominated for the 2006 Molière Award for Best Actor for his stage performance in Moins 2.

Trintignant came from a wealthy family. His uncle, race car driver Louis Trintignant, died in a practice crash at the Péronne racetrack in 1933.

He provided the voice of Uncle Irvin in the acclaimed film The City of Lost Children 1995.

After Marie’s murder in Lithuania in 2003, Trintignant fell into a deep depression and said he did not speak for three months. He told The Gazette in 2012 that he faced a choice between suicide or continuing to live.

Unlike the flamboyant styles of contemporaries like Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Gabin, Trintignant was known for his understated, naturalistic acting.

Trintignant said that of his over 100 film roles, about 100 were best left forgotten.

Trintignant won the Silver Bear for Best Actor in 1968 for The Man Who Lies and the Cannes Best Actor award in 1969 for Z.

An avid amateur rally driver, Trintignant competed in World Rally Championship events in the 1970s and 1980s. He won his class in the 1981 Monte Carlo Rally.

In 2018, Trintignant revealed he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and chose not to undergo treatment.

By November 2021, reports indicated that Trintignant was losing his sight and his health was declining.

New York Times critic Terrence Rafferty wrote in 2012 that Trintignant knows how to catch an audience unaware.

Trintignant announced his retirement from cinema in July 2018, but returned in 2019 for Claude Lelouch’s The Best Years of a Life, a sequel to A Man and a Woman.

Trintignant studied acting under Tania Balachova alongside Delphine Seyrig, Michael Lonsdale, Laurent Terzieff, Bernard Fresson, Antoine Vitez, and his future wife Stéphane Audran.

Trintignant was cast in Il sorpasso 1962 because he resembled Jacques Perrin, who originally had the role but left for another film.

Trintignant specialized in playing flawed everyman characters.

Trintignant initially studied law, planning a political career like his father. But after seeing Molière’s The Miser, he was inspired to become an actor.

Trintignant received five César Award nominations: in 1987, 1995, 1996, 1999, and 2013.

Trintignant made his stage debut in 1951 and became one of the most talented French dramatic actors of the post-war period, starring in numerous European film classics.

After a 14-year absence from film, Trintignant returned for Michael Haneke’s Amour 2012, a script written specifically for him. He said he chose projects based on the director and praised Haneke’s complete mastery of cinema.

Two Trintignant films were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: Z 1969 and Amour 2012. Both won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Trintignant was the grandfather of actors Roman Kolinka, Paul Cluzet, and Jules Benchetrit.

Trintignant graduated from the film school IDHEC, now known as La Fémis.