Guy Bedos

Bedos was born in Algiers, Algeria, the son of Alfred Bedos, a health visitor, and Hildeberte Verdier, daughter of the headmaster of the high school Bugeaud, where he was raised. His parents separated. He was tossed around, home to hotel, in Kouba, where there was a pension at age seven in Finouche, who served as a teacher, Souk Ahras and Constantine. He enrolled at the age of thirteen with a Catholic high school in Bone. According to his autobiography ‘Memories d’outre-mere’, his bad relationship with his mother and step-father made his life very difficult. His step-father beat his mother, who beat her son. He also tells us that his step-father was racist and antisemitic, but that his mother gave him his human political consciousness. He also revealed that during that period of time he had obsessive compulsive disorders.

His uncle, Jacques Bedos, worked at Radio Algerias before entering the ORTF in Paris, where he vacationed as an artist.

He arrived in Paris in June 1949 with his parents and his two twin half-sisters, left the family home of Rueil-Malmaison in February 1950, and sold books, going door to door. At seventeen, he entered the Rue Blanche school, learned classical theater, and signed his first production: Marivaux Arlequin poli par l’amour. He played in theaters, but also cabarets, as La Fontaine des Quatre-Saisons. He was engaged by François Billetdoux, when Jacques Prévert, who found him writing, encouraged him to write sketches.^[1] He performed his first sketch, signed by Jacques Chazot, La Galerie 55.

In 1954, he made his first appearance in the cinema in Futures Vedettes by Marc Allégret.

In order for him to fulfill his military service during the Algerian war, he went on a hunger strike and succeeded in being reformed for mental illness.

Bedos died on 28 May 2020 at age 85; the death was confirmed by his son, Nicolas Bedos.^[2]

He married 3 times

• With Karen Blanguernon, they had a daughter, Leslie Bedos, born in 1957
• With Sophie Daumier, they had a daughter, Melanie, born in 1977. She previously had a son, Phillipe, born in 1954, who died 11 December 2010 like her from the degenerative Huntington illness.
• With Joelle Bercot, they had 2 children, Nicolas, born in 1980, and Victoria, born in 1984

On 22 December 2011, in an interview published in Libération, a French daily newspaper, he mentioned his deceased family members, including Françoise Dorléac, ‘’I had a fiancee, Francoise Dorleac. Since her death, I cannot pass La Louvre without looking at it. Because Francoise died in a car accident, he no longer drove.

In 1965, he started the music hall Bobino co-starring with Barbara, and then began a career as a comedian forming, a duet with Sophie Daumier, whom he married 19 February 1965. After their divorce in 1977, he started his solo career, as an actor in film and television movies.

He is known for his recurring role of Simon in the 1970s, as a doctor suffocated by his very possessive Jewish-foot-black mother, in An Elephant that Deceives Enormously and, We Will All Go to the Paradise of Yves Robert.

Since then, he has directed and performed many shows, including one with Michel Boujenah and Smaïn entitled Coup de soleil at the Olympia, and one in duet with Muriel Robin in 1992.

He has also performed in plays such as La Résistible Ascension by Bertolt Brecht.

He contributed regularly to the satirical weekly, Siné Hebdo created by Siné, until it was not published. He had taken the defense of Siné when he had been accused of anti-Semitism by the director of Charlie Hebdo, Philippe Val.

Sometimes at differences with his ideas, he felt "closer to Albert Camus rather than Enrico Macias."

Bedos was a "man of the left" without supporting any particular political party. In 2012, he moved in Hénin-Beaumont to support the candidacy of Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

He was often indicated as one of the representatives of the left wing by essayists and personalities of the right, among whom notably are Éric Zemmour or Jean Roucas.

In 2008, he showed his support for Yvan Colonna.

In October 2013 during a show, he portrayed the old Minister of Employment Nadine Morano, setting off many comments in mass media. Brought on by the last action, he was discharged by the court of Nancy.

He also continued to support the activists of the right association in accommodation. He was a member of the League of Human Rights.

He was a member of the Honorary Committee of the Association for the right to die with dignity. He was regularly involved with the association, and in 2012 he co-wrote a call for candidates in the presidential elections to commit to introduce a Bill to legalize euthanasia.

He was part of the committee in support of journalist Denis Robert at Florange on 10 November 2007.

In the citizen primary in 2017, he supported Arnaud Montebourg, stating "I think Manuel Valls is left as I am far-right. There are a lot of things that I have disliked in his behavior when he was Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior." Initially named the head of the committee in support of Montebourg, Bedos started to refuse by presiding over, then accepted it before giving it away again.

He intervened again, unexpectedly according to him, declaring it was "left but not Socialist" and reminded that he was against racism in all forms "but I’m not always okay with how our Muslim friends treat women. I say. I don’t care if someone doesn’t like it."

Bedos had come to support Jean-Luc Mélenchon on 18 March 2017 to market for the Republic life of the rebellious France.

Bedos was sanctioned in 1995 by the labor court of Tours for having fired a couple he had hired for the maintenance of a rented castle.

• Monique Mayère

• Guy Bedos at IMDb