For a long time I went to bed latewas the title of his memoirs. He spoke of his passion for theater and directing, of his encounters, from Pierre Brasseur to François Truffaut, from Catherine Deneuve to Fanny Ardant, from Romain Gary to Paul Léautaud – from whom he will borrow the excipit of the book, published on his 90th birthday (Morrigane Editions, 2018): ” The death ? Provided that I arrive until there. »
Henri Garcin has just arrived there, after a long life spent on the boards and on the screens, large and small. The actor died in Paris on June 13, at the age of 94. Quietly, as a worthy heir to those great supporting roles that brought glory to French cinema and theater – and made millions of French people “go to bed late” on Sunday evenings, as the series did Maguywhere he played the friend (and annoyed neighbor) of the couple Rosy Varte-Jean-Marc Thibault, from 1985 to 1993.
The theater was the real passion of Anton Albers (real name, of Dutch origin), when he landed in Paris at the age of 22, in 1950. She will never leave him. “Excellent beginnings, will write Claude Sarraute in The world in January 1956. This boy already keeps everything he promises: a great talent as an actor combined with a phlegm of good quality. »
Antihero par excellence
In 1964 he co-wrote The great Escape with a certain Romain Bouteille, the future gang leader of the Café de la Gare who will see Coluche debut. The following decade, Henri Garcin will be one of the pillars of “Au theater ce soir”, the program which honored boulevard plays at prime time. In 1984, he will play The Dance of Death by Strindberg, with Michel Bouquet, directed by Claude Chabrol.
It is the theater that will make him cross, in September 1969, François Truffaut, come to see, on the arm of Catherine Deneuve, Something like Glenariff, a play written and performed by Henri Garcin, at the Théâtre des Mathurins in Paris. The filmmaker of the New Wave will offer him twelve years later one of his best (supporting) roles, that of the deceived – but worthy – husband of Fanny Ardant in The Woman Next Door.
Even if he prefers the boards, the cinema will not leave him anymore – and vice versa. Antihero par excellence, in the shadow of Philippe Noiret, Pierre Brasseur, Michel Serrault, Gérard Depardieu, Henri Garcin multiplies eclectic roles in various and varied films, by Jean-Paul Rappeneau (The good life), Georges Lautner (sorrel flower), Marguerite Duras (Destroy, she said), Nicole Garcia (One week-end out of two), Patrice Leconte (My best friend), and most recently, for his final appearance on the big screen, Louis-Do de Lencquesaing (The Holy Family, released in 2019).
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