Gilles Béhat

Gilles Béhat — Biography

Gilles Béhat is a French director and screenwriter who began as an actor and became known for detective and action films. He first made his name with the 1984 gangster film Rue barbare, and in the 1990s and 2000s he directed episodes of French police series for television. His real surname is Béat; the "h" comes from an error in the credits of the first production in which he acted.

As a teenager he played guitar in a rock band, then took acting classes at the Conservatoire d'Art Dramatique. He started on television, in L'Hercule sur la place, Les Rois maudits (1972, as Charles IV le Bel) and La Cloche tibétaine (1974, as Victor Point). In cinema he appeared in Bernard Paul's Beau Masque (1972), Gérard Pirès's Elle court, elle court la banlieue (1973) and Jean Yanne's Chobizenesse (1975).

He moved into directing with short films, then made Haro! (1978), Putain d'histoire d'amour (1981), Rue barbare (1984), Urgence (1985) and Charlie Dingo (1986). Several later films, such as Dancing Machine (1990) with Alain Delon, were relative commercial failures. He then turned to television, directing series for TF1, France 2 and Canal+ and episodes of Les Cordier, juge et flic and Julie Lescaut. In 2008 he returned to cinema with the noir Diamant 13, starring Gérard Depardieu, Olivier Marchal and Asia Argento. He was born in Lille.