His “mouth” had been popularized by the filmmaker Gaspar Noé and the young generation of directors of the 1990s, like Jacques Audiard or Mathieu Kassovitz. The actor Philippe Nahon, who had played in many supporting roles in cinema and on television, died on Sunday April 19. 81 years old, he died “of a long illness, aggravated by Covid-19 infection”, said his wife.
After starting in The Doulos of Jean-Pierre Melville (1962), he works mainly for television, chaining dramas and series like The last five minutes or Commissioner Maigret’s investigations in the 1970s and 1980s, spaced from appearances in theater and supporting roles in cinema (The red sweater in 1979, Clara and the chic types in 1981 …).
In 1991 Philippe Nahon stars in Gaspar Noé’s first medium-length film, Carne, presented at Critics’ Week at Cannes. “We fell in love with each other to make this film and after that it was very important to me to continue with him,” said the Argentinian director. This will be the case in Alone against all (1998).
Immense sadness.
Philippe Nahon has died, informs the journalist @didierperon pic.twitter.com/qZCHz7aKRz
– LTDT (@LTDT) April 19, 2020
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In the meantime it will become a valued actor of a new generation of filmmakers, with roles in Hatred or The Crimson Rivers of Mathieu Kassovitz, A very discreet hero by Jacques Audiard or Canticle of the scum by Vincent Ravalec. “While being extremely straight, he could play twisted and complicated roles and make them endearing”, still remembers Gaspar Noé, for whom “working with him was like going on vacation with a friend”.
Mathieu Kassovitz a praised “the actor of film lovers and an outstanding actor”, Albert Dupontel, who had played with him in Irreversible, “a rare actor, of an extraordinary sensitivity and sincerity (…) gone into the infinite, his true dimension”. “He became the actor of a generation and I am happy to have crossed his path”, remembered the Belgian director Fabrice Du Welz, who had directed him in Calvary (2004).
I learn with great sorrow the disappearance of Philippe Nahon. All my thoughts to his …
Damn, how sad …#GoustanLeCruel
– Alexandre Astier (@AAstierOff) April 19, 2020
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“Damn it’s sad,” tweeted. Alexandre Astier, for which he had played “Goustan the cruel” in the series Kaamelott, while Cinematheque paid homage to “a cinema life” extended “over 60 years of sets, the hexagonal cinema surveyed in all directions, from Doillon, Féret, Nicloux, Fabrice Du Welz to Besson, Gans, Corneau, Perrault, Audiard, Fillières or Kassovitz. A trip to Spielberg, too. And then, Gaspar Noé. “
