French actor Jean-Louis Trintignant, whose career was launched at the same time as Brigitte Bardot with the 1956 film 'And God Created Woman' died Friday at the age of 91, his ex-wife Nadine Trintignant said.
"He was somebody special," she told BFM TV.
Trintignant received the Best Actor Award at the 1969 Cannes Festival for the Costa Gavras film 'Z' and a Cesar Award for Best Actor in 2013 for the Michael Haneke movie 'Amour'.
Along with Jean-Pierre Léaud and the late Jean-Paul Belmondo, Trintignant was one of the leading actors of the French "New Wave" movement.
He played in more than 130 films, including the 1966 Cannes Palme d'Or winner 'A Man and a Woman', a film by Claude Lelouch, also famous for its musical score by Francis Lai.
He suffered personal tragedy in 2003 after his daughter Marie Trintignant, who was also a critically-acclaimed actress, died aged 41 after she was fatally beaten by her boyfriend Bertrand Cantat, leader of the French rockband Noir Désir.
Cantat was convicted of manslaughter and released from jail in 2007.