Carmet, Jean-Gabriel-Edmond

▪ 1995

      French actor (b. April 25, 1920, Tours, France—d. April 20, 1994, Sèvres, near Paris, France), appeared in some 200 motion pictures in a career that spanned 50 years. Carmet began as a stagehand and comedian in revues such as the Branquignols troupe (1948). His first screen role was as a member of a crowd in Marcel Carné's Les Enfants du paradis (1944; Children of Paradise). For the next quarter century, the short, stocky actor appeared in dozens of films, particularly comedies, building a recognizable persona as a French Everyman. Beginning in 1970, however, Carmet tackled more serious roles as directors began using his deceptive on-screen ordinariness to good effect in such films as Le Grand Blond avec une chaussure noire (1972; The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe), Dupont-Lajoie (1974), La Victoire en chantant (1976; Black and White in Colour), Violette Nozière (1977; Violette), and Buffet froid (1979; Cold Cuts). He won two César awards from the French cinema academy for best supporting actor for Les Misérables (1982) and Merci la vie (1992; Thank You, Life) as well as the academy's lifetime achievement award in 1993. Carmet's last screen role was in Germinal (1993).

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