One of France's most beloved actors both on screen and on stage, Fabrice Luchini grew up in the Paris working class neighborhood of La Goutte d'Or. The son of Italian immigrants, he sells fruits and vegetables from a young age at his parent's small shop. Preferring street life to school, he is nonetheless an autodidact, avidly reading French literature with a passion for Balzac, Flaubert, and Proust, among many others. At 13, his mother finds him a job as a hairdresser apprentice in an upscale salon of the 8th Arrondissement, but his love for soul music turns him into a regular of nightclubs where he gets noticed by director Philippe Labro who gives him his very first part in 1969 in Tout Peut Arriver.
Eric Rohmer casts him in Claire's Knee, while at the same time Luchini signs up for acting school and discovers the treasures of classical theatre. With newly acquired experience, he gets cast again by Rohmer, in Perceval Le Gallois, followed by Full Moon in Paris, soon becoming one of Rohmer's favorite actors. At first a darling of cinephiles, his role as an eloquent dandy in Christian Vincent's La Discrete makes him a popular actor as well. From then on he becomes one of France's most sought out actors with roles in Cédric Klapisch's first film, Riens du Tout (1992), Claude Lelouch's Tout ca... pour ca (1993), for which he wins a César for Best Supporting Actor, Edouard Molinaros' Beaumarchais, L'Insolent (1995), and acts opposite stars such as Sandrine Kiberlain, Nathalie Baye and Sandrine Bonnaire.
His unique diction and brilliant verve makes him a favorite of French television talk shows. Luchini loves playing Moliere characters on screen and on stage where he also reads literary texts by La Fontaine, Céline and Barthes. One of his role was opposite Catherine Deneuve and Gérard Depardieu in Potiche, directed by Francois Ozon, who cast him again in his film, "Dans la Maison," in production.
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