L’actor, filmmaker and producer Jacques Perrin, who had starred in Donkey Skin or The Drum Crab and directed the documentary The migrating people, died Thursday in Paris at the age of 80, his family announced to Agence France-Presse. “The family has the immense sadness to inform you of the disappearance of the filmmaker Jacques Perrin, who died on Thursday April 21 in Paris. He passed away peacefully at the age of 80,” his family announced in a statement sent to Agence France-Presse by his son, Mathieu Simonet.
As an actor, Jacques Perrin, born in Paris on July 13, 1941, appeared in more than 70 films from the 1950s. His soft voice and his gray hair turned white were familiar to the general public, who saw him in particular at Pierre Schoendoerffer (A Captain’s Honor, in 1982) and Jacques Demy (The Demoiselles de Rochefort, in 1967; Donkey Skin, in 1970).
A final role in March 2022
Jacques Perrin has also been the co-producer of some fifteen films since the end of the 1960s, including Z by Costa-Gavras (1968) or The chorists (2004) by his nephew Christophe Barratier, in which he also played (8.6 million admissions).
READ ALSOCinema – Jacques Perrin, His Majesty of Beasts
A committed defender of nature, he has co-produced several documentaries on this theme, including The Monkey People (1989), Microcosmos: the grass people (1996) or Himalayas: the childhood of a chef (1999). Subsequently, he himself co-directed acclaimed documentaries, including The migrating peopledevoted to birds (2001, 2.8 million spectators in France), then oceans (2010, 2.9 million viewers), awarded the César for best documentary in 2011). His last film role, in Goliathreleased in March, echoes his environmental battles: in this thriller about pesticides, he teams up with a formidable lobbyist from the phytosanitary industry, played by Pierre Niney.