Philippe Noiret

Philippe Noiret was born on 1 October 1930 in France and spent decades becoming the kind of screen presence directors built their films around. He worked steadily through the second half of the twentieth century, inhabiting roles that asked for weight rather than flash — the sort of actor whose name on a marquee promised intelligence, melancholy, and a performance that wouldn't announce itself. By the time he died on 23 November 2006, he'd become one of those figures whose absence left French cinema feeling emptier, the reliable center suddenly gone.