Serge Reggiani

Serge Reggiani 2 May 1922 23 July 2004 was an Italianborn French singer and actor He was born in Reggio Emilia Italy and moved to France with his parents at the age of eight For many years he struggled with alcoholism caused in part by the 1980 suicide of his son Stephan After acting school Conservatoire des arts cinématographiques he was discovered by Jean Cocteau and appeared in a wartime production of Les Parents terribles The Terrible Parents During World War II he left Paris to join the French resistance His first feature film came in 1946 with his role in Les portes de la nuit The Doors of the Night He later went on to perform in 80 films including Casque dor Les Misérables 1958Tutti a casa Le Doulos Il Gattopardo La terrazza The Pianist 1998 In spite of never quite reaching the peak with his acting career he did triumph in the theatre in 1959 with his performance in JeanPaul Sartres play Les Séquestrés dAltona In the meantime though in 1965 he began a second career that of a singer at the age of 43 with the help of Simone Signoret and her husband Yves Montand and later with great assistance of the French diva Barbara Reggiani became one of the most acclaimed performers of French Chanson song and although he was in his 40s his badboy rugged image made him popular with both young and older listeners His best known songs include Les loups sont entrés dans Paris The Wolves Have Entered Paris and Sarah La femme qui est dans mon lit The Woman Who Is In My Bed the latter written by Georges Moustaki However one of his regular songwriters throughout his career was Boris Vian Le Déserteur Arthur où tas mis le corps La Java des bombes atomiques His new young fans identified with his leftwing ideals and antimilitarism most notably during the 1968 student revolts in France With age he became more and more acclaimed as one of the best interpreters of the French chanson also bringing the poetry of Rimbaud Apollinaire and Prévert closer to his audience In 1995 he made a comeback to the singing stage giving a few concerts despite his deteriorated health and personal distress the last one being held as late as in the year of his death in spring of 2004 In later life he became a painter and gave a number of exhibitions of his artwork Serge Reggiani died in Paris of a heart attack at the age of 82 one day after the death of another well known French singer Sacha Distel He is interred in Montparnasse Cemetery