Cremer’s acting career spanned half a century. He began appearing in bit parts in films in the 1950s; following a slow ascent, he landed several major roles in French productions of the 1970s.
Most notable among those was Claude Sautet’s Academy Award-nominated drama A Simple Story (1979), costarring Romy Schneider and Claude Brasseur.
On the other side of the North Atlantic, he was seen opposite Roy Scheider in William Friedkin’s thriller Sorcerer (1977), based on Georges Arnaud’s 1950 French novel Le salaire de la peur (“The Wages of Fear”), and which had been previously transferred to the big screen as Henri-Georges Clouzot’s The Wages of Fear (1953), starring Yves Montand.
Cremer kept himself busy in the 1980s, but from the early 1990s on his film and TV work was almost exclusively restricted to playing the pipe-smoking Maigret.
3 comments
Totally magnificent role and magnificent actor combination with Mr. Cremer in the role of Jules Maigret. I found Mr. Cremer thru my love of the French language, ever seeking to gain fluency — via MHZnetworks.org. I now am delighted to find the postings of his incredible shows on YouTube. Today was the first I saw a picture of the young Mr. Cremer — how splendidly handsome he was.
He was to acting what Johnny Carson was to late-night entertainment. Truly my world has been enriched by such a wonderful talent, and Mr. Cremer lives on thru those of us touched by his work.
very very saddened reading the news of bruno cremer passing away on 7 /8/2010,sorry to be so late in finding out,to add my comment on this fine actor, i absolulty hooked on this fine actor as “maigret” i have the 42 dvd set plus a few of his earlier films.he will indeed be missed,my
condolence,s to madame cremer and family
I am deeply saddened by the recent death of the great actor Bruno Cremer. His portrayal of Inspector Jules Maigret is perfection and the whole series — is one of the rare jewels in the film/tv world. The subtlety and authenticity displayed in the screenplay adaptation of Simmeon’s novels is reminiscent of those done for LeCarre’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley’s People. Every aspect of the Inspector Maigret Series’ direction, production, cinematography, music, art direction and acting is flawlessly conceived and portrayed. The care and crafting of this series is one of the most outstanding-ever- and a must for any film collection!