Henri Garcin, a popular supporting actor in theater and cinema, famous for his role in the sitcom Maguy and that of the cuckold in The Woman Next Door, died in Paris at the age of 94, announced his agent, Anne Alvares-Correa, this Monday, June 13. He died overnight from Sunday to Monday, she said.
Anti-hero roles
Having become popular in the ’80s thanks to Maguy, a television series broadcast on Sunday evenings, the actor first distinguished himself on the stage and the big screen in anti-hero roles: a seducer outmatched by Catherine Deneuve in The Good Life (1966) by Rappeneau, a gangster partner of Mireille Darc in Sorrel Flower (1967) by Lautner, or a bourgeois deceived by Fanny Ardant in The Woman Next Door (1981) by Truffaut…
The Dutch-born actor – whose real name is Anton Albers – was often cautious when asked about the hit series, assuring in his memoir published in 2019 that this popular success had kept him “a bit far from the cinema”. His last role dates back to 2020 in The Holy Family, a dramatic comedy by Louis-Do de Lencquesaing, with Laura Smet and Léa Drucker.
From cabaret to cinema
Born in 1928 in Antwerp (Belgium), into a wealthy family of industrialists, the actor spent his childhood in Brussels and said he owed his vocation to his father who “recounted his board meetings with a verve and humor that the best actor would not have disavowed”.
He landed in Paris at the age of 20 and trained at Cours Dullin, before taking cabarets by storm with a sketch he wrote. It was there that he met Jacques Brel, who also came from Belgium, Barbara, Serge Gainsbourg and formed a great friendship with Georges Moustaki.