by Hal Erickson
biography
Putting his plans for a medical career in abeyance to work as a baker and bank clerk, Paris-born Michel Bouquet began taking acting lessons during the war years. Firmly established as a stage performer, Bouquet made his first film, Monsieur Vincent, in 1947. Years of slugging away in secondary film roles paid off when, in the early 1960s, Bouquet was "rediscovered" by such New Wave filmmakers as Francois Truffault. Claude Chabrol. Michel Bouquet has become a favorite purveyor of complex character roles in Truffault's The Bride Wore Black (1967) and Mississippi Mermaid (1969), and in Chabrol's La Femme Infidele (1969), Just Before Nightfall (1971) and Cop Au Vin (1985)
