Detailed Biography

Bernard Giraudeau is a French actor, film director, scriptwriter, producer and writer.

Life

Giraudeau was born in La Rochelle, Charente-Maritime. In 1963 he enlisted in the French navy as a trainee engineer, qualifying as the first in his class a year later. He served on the helicopter carrier Jeanne d'Arc in 1964-1965 and 1965-1966, and subsequently on the frigate Duquesne and the aircraft carrier Clemenceau before leaving the navy to try his luck as an actor.

He was married to actor and author Anny Duperey, with whom he has two children; one of them, Sara Giraudeau has achieved success as an actor.

Giraudeau first appeared on film in Deux hommes dans la ville , and his first film as director was in 1987, though he has continued to work as an actor. As a writer, he has written the text of books of photography as well as publishing children's stories and several novels. He is also the reader on the French audio books of the Harry Potter series.

In 2000 he suffered a cancer which led to the removal of his left kidney, with a subsequent metastasis in 2005 affecting his lungs. He has said that the cancer led him to re-evaluate his life and understand himself better. He now devotes some of his time to the support of cancer victims through the Institut Curie and the Institut Gustave-Roussy in Paris. ·  ·