Amidou

Amidou
Born
Hamidou Benmessaoud

(1935-08-02)2 August 1935
Rabat, French Morocco
Died19 September 2013(2013-09-19) (aged 78)
Paris, France
OccupationActor
Years active1935–2013
AwardsRio de Janeiro International Film Festival, Cairo Film Festival

Hamidou Benmessaoud (Arabic: حميدو بنمسعود; 2 August 1935 – 19 September 2013), best known as Amidou, was a Moroccan-French film, television, and stage actor.[citation needed]

Born in Rabat, at 17 Amidou moved to Paris to attend the CNSAD. In 1968 he made his debut on stage, in Jean Genet's Les paravents.[1]

Amidou was best known for his association with director Claude Lelouch, with whom he shot eleven films, including Lelouch's film debut Le propre de l'homme (1960).[2] He made his debut in a Moroccan film in 1969, starring in Soleil de printemps directed by Latif Lahlou.[1] His career included roles in Spaghetti Westerns like Buddy Goes West and several American productions, including William Friedkin's Sorcerer, John Frankenheimer's Ronin and John Huston's Escape to Victory.[2]

In 1969, Amidou was awarded best actor at the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival for his role in Life Love Death by Claude Lelouch,[3] and later won best actor awards at the Cairo Film Festival (for Pursuit by Leila Triquie) and at the Tangier Film Festival (for Rachid Boutounes's Here and There).[2] In 2005 he received, from the hands of Martin Scorsese, a Lifetime Career Award at the International Film Festival of Marrakech.[3] He was also the first Moroccan actor to have won an acting award at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art.[2]

Amidou died on 19 September 2013 in Paris, France, from an undisclosed illness.[2]

  1. ^ a b "Décès de Hamidou Benmassoud :Amidou, premier acteur marocain à s'être fait un nom à l'international". Aufait Moroc (in French). 20 September 2013. Archived from the original on 27 September 2013. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Amidou, comédien fétiche de Lelouch, est décédé". Le Figaro (in French). 20 September 2013. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  3. ^ a b Rebecca Chaouch (21 September 2013). "Décès de l'acteur marocain Hamidou Benmessaoud". Huffington Post (in French). Archived from the original on September 22, 2013. Retrieved 22 September 2013.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)