Most popular in his native France, actor Jean Carmet is best known internationally for playing a French colonist in La Victoire en Chantant/Black and White in Color (1976). He specialized in comedy and offscreen was known as quite the card, often causing the crew to laugh so hard they couldn't work. But not all of the 200-plus films in which he appeared were comedies. One of Carmet's most famous dramatic roles was that of the a decrepit miner, Bonnemort, in Germinal (1993). The son of a vintner and saddlemaker, Carmet launched his performing career on stage in the 1940s, but did not become well known until he played Gaston Duvet in the popular radio drama La Famille Duraton. Carmet made his film debut in Marcel Carne's Enfants du Paradis (1944). In 1982, he won a Cesar for best supporting actor in Les Miserables. In 1992, he won an award for Merci la Vie.
by Sandra Brennan
biography
