Serge Reggiani

Renowned for his brooding presence and eccentric 'monstre sacre' reputation, Serge Reggiani was a leading star of post-war French cinema before turning to music in the 1960s and becoming one of the country's much-loved chanson singers. Born in Reggio Emilia, Italy, Reggiani's family fled the Mussolini regime in 1930 and settled in Paris where his father ran a barber shop. Serge studied acting at the Conservatoire Des Ants Cinematographiques, but joined the French Resistance during WWII, before appearing in over 80 movies, including director Marcel Carnes' final work Les Portes De La Nuit and the classic romantic tragedy Casque D'or. He was 43-years-old when he was offered the chance to record a musical album of poems by Boris Vian, and his gruff, world weary, romantic style proved a surprise hit. Loved by young, student audiences for his left-wing politics and roguish, artistic spirit, his album of self-penned songs The Wolves Have Entered Paris chimed with the protest movement of 1968, and his most famous songs included Sarah (The Woman Who Is In My Bed), Ma Solitude and La Deserteur. He also set poems by Rimbaud and Apollinaire to song, but the suicide of his son in 1980 led to him suffering with depression and alcoholism. He made an impressive comeback in the mid-1990s, but died in 2004 from a heart attack, aged 82.