- Serrault, Michel
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▪ 2008French actorborn Jan. 24, 1928, Brunnoy, Francedied July 29, 2007, Honfleur, Franceappeared in more than 130 motion pictures over a 50-year career, but he won the hearts of fans worldwide (and the first of three César Awards for best actor) for his portrayal of the flamboyant and temperamental but tenderhearted drag queen Albin/Zaza in La Cage aux folles—beginning with some 1,500 performances (1973–78) at the Théâtre du Palais Royal in Paris and then in the 1978 movie and its two sequels. Serrault left a Roman Catholic seminary to study acting in Paris and in the early 1950s formed a cabaret act with actor-playwright Jean Poiret, who wrote La Cages aux folles and starred opposite Serrault onstage though not in the hit films. Serrault's other screen roles included a suspected child killer in the thriller Garde à vue (1981) and the aging ex-magistrate in the May-December romance Nelly et Monsieur Arnaud (1995), both of which earned him Césars. He was appointed to the Legion of Honour in 1999.
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Universalium. 2010.
