Charles Gérard, who died Thursday at the age of 96 years, was a second iconic role of Claude Lelouch but also the friend’s unwavering Jean-Paul Belmondo that he has assisted in numerous films including “Cop or Hooligan”.

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Born on December 1, 1926 to parents armenians, the man in the middle stout was especially recognizable by his nose if singular, broken by Jean-Paul Belmondo at their first meeting, on a ring in 1948. The two young people are then boxers, and bind a friendship strong, which lasted more than seventy years.

The two friends met in 1948 VALERY HACHE / AFP

For his film debut, Charles Gérard prefers to be behind the camera than in front of it. During the 60s, he produced crime fiction set B as “The Man who betrayed the mafia,” with Robert Hossein, or “The enemy in the shadows” with Roger Hanin. At the time, he is also a journalist for the sporting broadcast “behind The scenes of the feat”. After a first appearance in “The Rogue” in 1970, Charles Gérard becomes one of the secondary roles assigned in the films of Claude Lelouch. “Are returning to the Comédie Française… are returning Lelouch”, was the actor, appeared in about twenty feature-length films of the director. Lelouch him forge itself into these roles on a measure up in the mid-2000s, including “Charlot” in the hit comedy, “The journey is the adventure” with Jacques Brel, Aldo Maccione and Lino Ventura.

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“If it is not in the movie, I am not doing the film”

Charles Gerard also shared the poster with his friend of always Belmondo, -on which he has made a short film documentary in “Cop or hooligan” and “The Guignolo” de Georges Lautner or the”Animal” by Claude Zidi. “Jean-Paul has always been a great help” told it to BFMTV in 2013. “He took care of me. When he was shooting a film, he said, “there must be a role for Charlie chaplin”. And Jean-Paul insisted : “if it is not in the movie, I am not doing the film””. The fellows enrich their friendship, their common love of the sport: the sport of boxing, but also football and tennis. It was not uncommon to see the duo in the tribune de Roland Garros, a tournament in which Charles Gerard assured him – they refused to sign contracts to film. Gerard and Belmondo to appear one last time together in 2009, in “A man and his dog” of Francis Huster.

All his life, this good life will remain confined to secondary roles, often in the shadow of “Bébel” that he accompanies everywhere. It says not to be embarrassed, having “no shoulders” to be headlining. “Charlot” is displayed again on the screen in 2015, in “The Last Lesson” by Pascale Pouzadoux, alongside Sandrine Bonnaire and Marthe Villalonga. Charles Gerard, who died Thursday afternoon in a paris hospital at the age of 96 years, according to Michel Godest, lawyer of Jean-Paul Belmondo, has been married and divorced twice… as “Bébel”.

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