François Berléand (; born 22 April 1952) is a French actor. He plays Gilles Triquet, the officer manager and equivalent of

David Brent David Brent is a fictional character in the BBC television mockumentary ''The Office'', portrayed by the show's co-creator, co-writer and co-director Ricky Gervais. Brent is a white-collar office middle-manager and the principal character of ...

in ''

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'', the French version of ''

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'', produced by

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. He also appeared in the 2002 film ''

The Transporter ''The Transporter'' (French: ''Le Transporteur'') is a 2002 action-thriller film directed by Corey Yuen and Louis Leterrier (who is credited as artistic director on the film), and written by Luc Besson, who was inspired by BMW Films' ''The Hir ...

'' as the French ''commissaire'' named Tarconi, an active and honest police officer who is an acquaintance of Frank Martin (

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). He reprised the role in the sequels ''

Transporter 2 ''Transporter 2'' (French: ''Le Transporteur 2'') is an English-language French 2005 action-thriller film directed by Louis Leterrier. Written by Robert Mark Kamen and co-producer Luc Besson, it is the sequel to '' The Transporter'' (2002), as w ...

'' and ''

Transporter 3 ''Transporter 3'' (French: ''Le Transporteur 3'') is a 2008 English-language French action-thriller film. It is the third and final installment in the original trilogy of the '' Transporter'' franchise. Both Jason Statham and François Berléand ...

'' and the TV series.

Early life

Berléand was born in Paris, France. The son of an Armenian father and a French mother, until the age of eleven he found his childhood traumatic after being told by his father that Berléand was the son of the

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Career

While studying at business school, he trained as an actor, somewhat against his will; his first stage role was in a play called ''Sur une plage de l'Ouest'' (''On a beach in the West''). After graduation, he enrolled in drama classes with Tania Balachova and then met Daniel, a director under whose auspices he worked from 1974 to 1981, participating in a dozen productions, mainly of contemporary classics. Berléand began his film career in 1978 with supporting roles in successful comedies throughout the 1980s. After a series of highly acclaimed supporting roles, including ''My Small Business'' for which he won the César for best actor in a supporting role in 2000, he won his first major role in the film ''My Idol'' by Guillaume Canet which brought his name and face to the wider public. For this, Berléand thanks his former girlfriend, actress-director Nicole Garcia. In ''Martin et Léa'', he plays a police inspector, a role he went on to perform many times on screen (''La Balance'', ''Les mois d'avril sont meurtriers'' (based on the novel ''The Devil's Home on Leave'' by

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), ''Marche à l'ombre'' (''Walking in the Shade''), ''The Bait'', ''The Death the Chinese'', ''Fred'', ''The Smile of the Clown'', ''Ne le dis à personne'' (''Tell No One''), '' Transporter 1, 2, and 3'') thanks in part to a cold, distant, and piercing gaze. Berléand often plays military characters (''The Hostage of Europe'', ''Stella'', ''Les Milles'', ''Captain Conan'', ''The Prince of the Pacific''); he has also played a detective (''Follow This Plane''), pastor ('' Au revoir les enfants'') and psychiatrist in ''Seventh Heaven'', the film that really showed his talents to the public in late 1997. He released a book about his childhood in 2006, ''Le fils de l'homme invisible'' (The son of the invisible man).

Personal life

Berléand was in a relationship with French actress, film director and screenwriter Nicole Garcia for twelve years. He has been in a long-term relationship with Alexia Stresi; their twins Adèle and Lucy were born in December 2008. He is also the father of two grown children, Martin (born 1979) and Fanny (born 1983). He is the grandfather of Elios (born 2013), son of Martin.

Theater

Filmography

References

External links

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Le coin du cinéphage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Berleand, Francois 1952 births Living people French people of Armenian descent French male film actors French male television actors Ethnic Armenian male actors 20th-century French male actors 21st-century French male actors Best Supporting Actor César Award winners Officiers of the Légion d'honneur