Roland Giraud

Roland Giraud — Biography

Born in Rabat, Morocco, Roland Giraud built a long career as one of French cinema's familiar comic actors. He trained in theatre through the 1960s, married actress Maaike Jansen in 1966, joined Coluche's theatre troupe in 1971, and worked around the same time with the Le Splendid ensemble before making his film debut in Michel Audiard's Bons baisers... à lundi (1974). Wider fame followed his roles in Papy fait de la résistance and, opposite Coline Serreau's direction, in Trois hommes et un couffin. He went on to appear in dozens of French films, among them Fantômas contre Scotland Yard, Clara et les Chics Types, Les Bronzés font du ski, Quatre garçons pleins d'avenir and Le Maître d'école, staying on screen into the 2010s with films such as Beur sur la ville. He lost his daughter Géraldine, also an actress, who was murdered at the age of thirty-six in the town of Villeneuve-sur-Yonne.