Monument of French theater and cinema, Louis de Funès died at only 68 years old near his home, at the Château de Clermont, after the last turbulent weeks.
Unique, inimitable, iconic, cult… There is no shortage of adjectives to describe Louis de Funès, and for good reason since he is a true monument of cinema that has passed away. January 27, 1983 at the University Hospital of Nantes at the age of 68. But how could this man, closely followed by doctors, die despite all the precautions taken to avoid this tragedy? And what exactly did he die of? It was a heart attack that struck down Louis de Funès, the third he suffered in a few years and which was ultimately fatal to him. On March 21, 1975, the actor suffered his first heart attack while he was in his apartment in Paris. The second heart attack arrives a few days lateron March 30, when he seems to be getting better and an official press release has already informed the public that “the evolution of the case is favorable“but only one “strict and prolonged rest is however necessary”.
Measures to save his life
Louis de Funès is in the middle of a conversation with his wife, Jeanne de Funès, when a second heart attack much more serious than the first leads him back to the hospital where he is saved in extremis. Start then a long list of precautions, including food, with a strict diet supposed to protect the health of the actor. Exit fats, salt, alcohol and caffeine, Louis de Funès must avoid anything that could tire his heart, already put to the test by a busy career and a particular way of playing which was largely based on the anger and a very particular bodily tension. But the biggest instruction from doctors is much more drastic: Louis de Funès must stop playing and now favor rest.
On the spot, the actor agrees to make this huge sacrifice and even finds himself relieved. After years of being under the pressure of success and the ever-present race for money in the profession, Louis de Funès is almost grateful to be able to put it all aside to take care of his garden at the Château de Clermont, at the Cellier. During an interview granted to Danièle Heymann of the Expresshe will explain:When they announced to me: “you must stop, for life”, I was delighted. Taken by slight tremors of joy. Ah! I’m going to go see my carrots and my salads! Ah! little birds, angling! In the evening, all the same, I had a stroke of the blues. And then it ended there. Since it was over, it was over.”
A temporary stop and a definitive end
Glad to have been able to rest for a while, However, Louis de Funès cannot prevent himself from exercising a profession that he loves passionately, and which he embodied with so much passion that it broke his health. He made his return to the cinema alongside Coluche in the now cult The wing or the thigh produced by Christian Fechner in 1976. Even if, as he knows, he can no longer “do brutality” because “this brutality, this anger is a product that I had made for a role and all the directors asked me for this product”Louis de Funès always attracts the public, and thus continues to turn. La Zizanie, The Gendarme and the Extraterrestrials, The Miser… Five years after his two heart attacks, the actor and playwright continues his career, admittedly at a more leisurely pace, but on a regular basis. It would seem that nothing, not even his health and his survival, can prevent him from embodying characters and slipping into the skin of other men for the duration of a role.
Despite rest and drastic diets, Louis de Funès’ health did not improve, and it’s a safe bet that the years he had spent practicing his craft on film sets and on theater stages had already had too big an impact on his heart. At the end of 1982, he was still planning projects and in particular an adaptation of the play Papy fait de la resistance, which he was going to see in Paris. A few days later, it is in the mountains that he finds himself with his family, in order to enjoy the Christmas holidays all together. Weakened and a few days from death without his knowing it, Louis de Funès felt the effects of the altitude on his health and decided to return to his château at Cellier. It’s always very tiredhe will go to bed on January 27, 1983, in a bed where he will have a third heart attack from which he will never wake up. He died at the Nantes University Hospital Center at 8:30 p.m. after being taken care of by doctors.