Didier Kaminka has died from an illness at his home in Val-d’Oise. A ceremony to pay tribute to him will be held on Friday in Paris.
Screenwriter, actor, and director Didier Kaminka, known notably for the comedies Trop, c’est trop, Banzaï, and Promotion canapé, passed away on Tuesday at the age of 81, his son announced on Saturday to AFP.
Didier Kaminka died from an illness at his home in Labbeville (Val-d’Oise), where he filmed many scenes from his movies, and a ceremony to pay tribute to him will be held on Friday in Paris, he specified.
Born on April 22, 1943, in Paris, Didier Kaminka started his career as an actor in the late 1960s.
In 1973, actor Pierre Richard asked him to co-write his third feature film Je sais rien mais je dirai tout, in which he plays a small role, according to the specialized site Cinécomédies.
Successful Social Comedies
Numerous successful social comedies will follow, for which he wrote the dialogues, often in collaboration with director Claude Zidi, such as Les Sous-doués (1980) with Daniel Auteuil and Michel Galabru, Banzaï (1983) with Coluche, or Les rois du gag (1985) with Gérard Jugnot and Thierry Lhermitte.
Didier Kaminka was also behind the camera, as with Promotion canapé (1990), which he directed, as well as in front of it in La Dormeuse Duval (2017) by Manuel Sanchez, where he plays a painter, marking his last appearance on screen.
“I salute the memory of a man of cinema with multiple talents who contributed to the bright days of French comedy in the 1970s and 1980s,” reacted the Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, in a statement.