French actor Philippe Leroy died in Rome on June 1, 2024. He
was 93. A veteran of close to 200 films and television appearances, he was born
in Paris on October 15, 1930. The heir to an aristocratic family with six
generations of soldiers and ambassadors behind him. Disdainful of his title of
marquis, at the age of 17 he embarked as a cabin boy on a ship to America like
a Joseph Conrad character. Returning to France, he joined the Foreign Legion
and went to fight in Indochina and Algeria, enlisted as a paratrooper. He
returned from Algeria highly decorated but decided to abandon his military
career and find a job. Anyone, even in a circus (he worked with horses) or as a
navigator of offshore boats. A relative opened the way for him in the cinema,
his acting career began with the director Jacques Becker: struck by his lean
physique, by the air of someone who has seen danger up close and knows weapons,
he enlisted him in the cast of the film "The Hole" (1960) in the part
of a prisoner who tries to escape from prison, a criminal, but human and full
of dignity. In 1971, television, an instrument of popular consensus, offered
him the second turning point in his career as he’s remembered for his role of
the bishop in the TV series "Don Matteo" alongside Terence Hill,
seven episodes aired on Rai1 in the 2008-2009 season. Leroy appeared in three
Spaghetti westerns: “Yankee” in 1966 as Yankee; “Panhandle Caliber .38” in 1971
as General Briscott and “A Man Called Blade” in 1977 as Edward M. McGowan.
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