Rufus

Rufus — Biography

Rufus, born Jacques Narcy, is one of French cinema's most familiar faces; international audiences remember him as Raphaël, the father of Amélie Poulain, in Amélie (2001). On screen he was often cast as a gentle dreamer, moving easily between popular comedies and freer-spirited productions.

After three years of medical school he became a theatre manager. He entered cinema in the late 1960s with films such as Mr. Freedom, Erotissimo and L'Américain (1968-1969), and in the 1970s helped the café-théâtre scene emerge in France. He appeared in Roman Polanski's The Tenant (1976), Maurice Dugowson's Lily, aime-moi and films by Alain Tanner, and worked with directors including Claude Autant-Lara, Jacques Demy, Jules Dassin, Claude Lelouch and Jean-Luc Godard. From Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro's Delicatessen (1991) onward he appeared in most of Jeunet's films.

He played the lead in Radu Mihaileanu's award-winning Holocaust tragicomedy Train of Life (1998) and appeared in productions such as Les Misérables (1995), Iznogoud (2005) and A Very Long Engagement (2004). He received a César nomination during his career, and France made him a Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres and a Commander of the National Order of Merit. He is also a glider pilot.