Guy Marchand

Guy Marchand (22 May 1937 – 15 December 2023) was a French actor, musician, and singer. He appeared in over 100 films in over 30 years, but was best known for his role as the fictional television private detective Nestor Burma.

Guy Émile Marchand was born in Paris, 19th arrondissement, the son of a scrap merchant and a housewife and grew up in Belleville, during the Occupation and contracted tuberculosis at the age of ten. Spending time in Sarthe in the country he learned to ride and kept a love of horses throughout his life. In Paris, he regularly went to the Danube cinema. While at the Lycée Voltaire secondary school in Paris he played the clarinet in night clubs in Saint-Germain-des-Prés.

His military service was in an airborne troops division at the École des troupes aéroportées (BETAP) in Pau, becoming a sous-lieutenant – parachutist. He was assigned to the 3rd foreign infantry regiment as liaison officier during the Algerian war. As a parachute officer he was an advisor for the film Le Jour le plus long and entered the world of cinema. He made around 60 parachute jumps in his life.

His first success however was as a crooner, with a popular hit of 1965 La Passionata, followed by other albums and singles.

His film career mainly saw him in supporting roles; an inspector opposite Lino Ventura in Garde à vue, by Claude Miller won him a César in 1982 and the same year he was in Nestor Burma, détective de choc, by Jean-Luc Miesch, where Michel Serrault took the title role, but which Marchand later interpreted for over ten years in the television series Nestor Burma.

Other important roles included Coup de torchon by Bertrand Tavernier (1981), with Philippe Noiret, Cousin, Cousine, by Jean-Charles Tacchella (1975), and a cynical provincial garage man in L'été en pente douce, by Gérard Krawczyk (1987).

He published an autobiography entitled Le Guignol des Buttes-Chaumont in 2007 in which he wrote of his childhood, experiences in Algeria, his singing career and love for cars. Marchand died in Cavaillon on 15 December 2023, at the age of 86.

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