Michel Jacques Daniel Piccoli was the son of Henri Piccoli, violinist and Marcelle Expert-Bezançon (1892-1990), pianist and daughter of the French industrialist and politician Charles Expert-Bezançon. In 1954, Michel Piccoli married actress Éléonore Hirt with whom he had a daughter, Anne-Cordélia Piccoli. In 1966, he married the singer Juliette Gréco, then in 1978 the screenwriter Ludivine Clerc, with whom he adopted two children of Polish origin, Inord and Missia.
Placed in an establishment for problem children, the commitments of the young Piccoli, are made in opposition to his maternal grandfather, senator of the Third Republic, financier of the Radical Party, and important industrial painter, accused by the trade union left and by Georges Clemenceau, of having intoxicated his workmen through lead white which causes lead poisoning.
Michel Piccoli then trained as an actor first with Andrée Bauer-Théraud and then during Simon. After an appearance as an extra in "Sortilèges" by Christian-Jaque in 1945, Michel Piccoli made his film debut in "Le Point Du Jour" by Louis Daquin. In the theater he distinguished himself with the Renaud-Barrault and Grenier-Hussot companies as well as at the Théâtre de Babylone. Noticed in the film "French Cancan" in 1954, he continued on stage and worked with directors Jacques Audiberti, Jean Vilar, Jean-Marie Serreau, Peter Brook, Luc Bondy, Patrice Chéreau and André Engel, and became also know in popular TV movies. Having become an atheist after a family bereavement, he met Luis Buñuel in 1956, and ironically took on the role of a priest in "La Mort En Ce Jardin". In 1959, he shot "Le Rendez-Vous De Noël", a short film by André Michel based on the short story by Malek Ouary "Le Noël Du Petit Cireur", in Algiers. The 1960s sounded his consecration, noticed in "Le Doulos" by Jean-Pierre Melville, he was revealed internationally with "Le Mépris" by Jean-Luc Godard alongside Brigitte Bardot. From then on, he toured with the greatest French and international filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock, Luis Buñuel, Youssef Chahine, Manoel de Oliveira...
He began the 1980s with the interpretation prize at the Cannes festival in 1980, with "Le Saut Dans Le Vide" by Marco Bellocchio, and that of the Berlin festival in 1982, with "Une Étrange Affaire" by Pierre Granier-Deferre. . He worked with Jacques Doillon, Leos Carax, before trying his hand at directing. In 2001 he received the IX Europe Prize for Theatre. He was part of the jury of the 60th Cannes Film Festival in 2007, chaired by Stephen Frears. In 2011, he played in "Habemus Papam" by Nanni Moretti. The last film in which Michel Piccoli appears is the film "Le Goût Des Myrtilles", by Thomas de Thiers in 2013.
Politically committed to the left, member of the Peace Movement (communist), Michel Piccoli distinguished himself by his positions against the National Front, and mobilized for Amnesty International.
Michel Piccoli died on May 12, 2020 following a stroke in his mansion in Saint-Philbert-sur-Risle in Eure. His funeral takes place in Évreux on May 19, 2020, where he is cremated, his ashes are scattered within the family property.
as (archive footage)
as Self (archive footage)
as Self (archive footage)(1 ep)
as archive footage
as Self (archive footage)
as Agostino (archive footage) (uncredited)
as Self (archive footage)
as Self - Actor (archive footage)
as Self (archive footage)
as (archive footage)
as Self (archive footage)
as Self - Actor (archive footage)
as Self (archive footage)
as Narrator
as Michel
as Leópold Scheitzer
as Le père
as Man with the Wine Stain
as Self(5 eps)
as Melville
as Self
as Maurice Reverdy
as Self
as Self (archive footage)
as Spyros
as Le grand Hou
as Nikita Kruschev (segment "Rencontre unique")
as Le roi Lear
as Marcel
as Daddy
as Nikita Khrouchtchev
as Vidame de Pamiers
as Henri Husson
as Marie, la mère de Vincent
as Prof. Heschel
as Narrator
as Ferdinand (voice)
as acteur qui joue Simon
as Harald
as Michel Piccoli
as Self
as Gilbert Valence
as Louis
as Self
as Michel Piccoli
as as Self
as Narrator (voice)
as Michel des Assantes
as Zio Tony
as Récitant (voice)
as Lord Ariel Chatwick-West
as Self(1 ep)
as Self
as Jean-Michel Venture de Paradis
as Georges Didier
as Mac Bee / frère Mac Bee
as Narrateur
as Michel
as Cosimo
as Prince de Conti
as Self
as Simon Cinéma
as Paul Belmont
as Georges Feuvrier
as Adam - Ram's father
as Presenter
as Paul
as Henri Toussaint
as Self (archive footage)
as Leonard Wilde
as Chateaubriand (voice)
as Jules Verne
as Désiré, l'homosexuel
as Edouard Frenhofer
as Self (segment "Pour Nasrin Rasooli, Iran")
as Mr. Armand
as Edouard Frenhofer
as Marcel Spadice
as Le baron de Leisenbohg
as Ernst
as Milou
as Noël Schoudler(4 eps)
as L'avocat
as Pierre Willer
as Batz
as Père Jean-Marie
as Raoul Bergeron
as Kassar
as Self(1 ep)
as Damien Malleville
as Friedrich Hofreiter
as Pierre
as Marc
as der Tölpel
as Étienne Sembadel
as Caffarelli - كافاريللي
as Simon Lerner
as Graham Tombsthay
as Narrator (voice)
as French Official
as Michel Perrin
as Akiva Liebskind
as Benetandi
as Frédéric Mallaire
as Edmond Leroyer
as Tío Agostino
as Mr. Mutti
as Michel Boulard
as King Louis XVI (uncredited)
as Max Baumstein
as Léonid
as Self
as Jean-Paul Chance
as Self(5 eps)
as Bertrand Malair
as Professor
as Le père
as Self(1 ep)
as Jean Teyran(3 eps)
as Joseph
as René Winterhalter
as Mauro Ponticelli
as Pierre Chazerand
as Philippe
as Victor Navarro
as Grezillo
as Conrad Brukner
as Schoen
as Orlaville
as Self - Le lecteur des écrits d'A. Pinochet (voice)(4 eps)
as Strauberg
as Robert Hansen
as Self(6 eps)
as Bernard Rougerie
as Saint-Ramé
as Mathieu Faber (voice) (uncredited)
as Ispettore Marchand
as Simon Léotard
as Etienne
as Him
as Michel
as Captain Roger(1 ep)
as Dr Losseray
as Richard
as Self(3 eps)
as Self(1 ep)
as Self(1 ep)
as L'enquêteur
as François, médecin
as Self(2 eps)
as Police Prefect #2
as Michel
as Georges Sarret
as Buffalo Bill
as Mr. Dellerue (voice)
as Indian chief
as Michel
as Pierre Maury
as Themroc
as Pierre
as Narrator (voice)
as Colonel Kassar
as Interior Minister
as Giorgio's friend
as Padre Amerin
as Self(5 eps)
as Paul Regis
as Valentin
as Self(1 ep)
as Max, inspector
as Self(1 ep)
as Self(1 ep)
as Marcello
as Pierre Bérard
as Jacques Granville
as François Desailly
as Marquis de Sade
as Glauco
as Him
as L'invité pressé au vernissage (uncredited)
as Charles
as Inspector Ginko
as Count Philippe
as Marrades
as Henri Husson
as L'homme de trop
as Paul Javal (archive footage)
as Simon Dame
as Self
as Edgar Pisani
as Narrator (voice)
as Edgar Piccoli
as Werner Kreuz
as Alexandre Saccard
as L'antiquaire
as Inspector #1
as Capri / Bruno
as Lecoeur
as René Cabourg, l'employé besogneux (Victime #2)
as Dom Juan
as Georges Sarrassin
as Récitant (voice)
as Raoul
as Kafka
as Philippe Decharme (segment "Lucky la chance")
as Texte dit par (voice)
as Self
as Narrator (voice)
as Monsieur Monteil
as Jean, the Reporter
as Narrator (voice)
as Paul Javal
as Antoine
as Nuttheccio
as Izquierdo dans l'émission de télévision 'Montserrat' (uncredited)
as François
as Récitant (voice)
as Récitant (voice)
as Paul
as Serlon de Savigny
as Console Publicola
as L'homme
as Récitant (voice)
as Brian Cannon
as Hugo Barsac
as Chvokhniev
as Robert
as Commissioner Jacques Guimard
as Tom Brown, jeune
as Jacques Forestier
as L'inspecteur Vardier, de la P.J.
as Franck Marchal
as Richard Burke
as Pianist
as Le directeur de l'aéro-club
as James Putnam
as Récitant (voice)
as Father Lizzardi
as Officer (uncredited)
as un inspecteur
as Maurice Rouger
as Récitant (voice)
as Le Capitaine Valorgueil
as Georges
as Reverdier
as Gérard
as Pasquerel (segment "Jeanne")
as un ouvrier
as Torticola
as Slim Spring
as Self(1 ep)
as Tommy Goudchote
as Un journaliste aux archives (uncredited)
as Un journaliste aux archives
as Lebel
as Georges Gohelle
as Un villageois
