| Sacha Pitoëff | |
| Birth Name: | Alexandre Pitoëff[1] |
| Birth Date: | 11 March 1920 |
| Birth Place: | Geneva, Switzerland |
| Death Place: | Paris, France |
| Nationality: | French |
| Education: | Lycée Pasteur Théâtre de l'Athénée |
| Years Active: | 1952–1980 |
| Spouse: | Luce Garcia-Ville |
| Parents: | Georges Pitoëff Ludmilla Pitoëff |
Sacha Pitoëff (born Alexandre Pitoëff;[1] 11 March 1920 – 21 July 1990) was a Swiss-born French actor and stage director.[2]
Pitoëff was born in Geneva, Switzerland, on 11 March 1920, the son of Russian-born parents Ludmilla (née Smanova) and Georges Pitoëff. Both of his parents were born in the city of Tbilisi (in modern-day Georgia), then a part of the Russian Empire. The Pitoëffs were prominent actors in France, Georges was a founding member of the Cartel des Quatre (Group of Four), a group including Louis Jouvet, Charles Dullin, and Gaston Baty, dedicated to rejuvenating the French theatre.[3]
Sacha graduated from Lycée Pasteur in Neuilly-sur-Seine, outside Paris. He studied acting and stage direction under Jouvet at the Théâtre de l'Athénée.
During World War II, the younger Pitoëff followed his mother back to Switzerland, where he played his earliest roles. After the war he returned to Paris, becoming general manager at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord. He made his directorial debut with a 1950 staging of Uncle Vanya, which proved both a critical and commercial success.
He became a fixture of Parisian theatre in the 1960s, becoming the director of his own troupe. His repertoire included works by Jean Genet, Eugène Ionesco, Hugo Claus, Robert Musil, Anna Langfus and Anton Chekhov. With Romy Schneider, he staged The Seagull, Uncle Vanya and Three Sisters at Théâtre de l'Œuvre.
In 1967, he achieved his greatest success with a well-regarded production of Luigi Pirandello's Henry IV, which he directed and starred in, with Claude Jade.
Pitoëff played his first film role in 1952, in the omnibus film The Seven Deadly Sins. Appearing in over 50 films, he is probably best known for his performance in Alain Resnais's enigmatic Last Year at Marienbad (1960), as the unnamed man who may or may not be Delphine Seyrig's husband.
He was featured in roles of various sizes in such films as Henri-Georges Clouzot's Les Espions (1957), Peter Ustinov's Lady L (1965), René Clément's Is Paris Burning? (1966), and Jacques Demy's Donkey Skin (1970). He also appeared in several Hollywood productions, including Anatole Litvak's Anastasia (1956) and The Night of the Generals (1967), Mark Robson's The Prize (1963) and Dick Clement's To Catch a Spy (1971).
Toward the end of his acting career, he began appearing in horror films. His final role was as the bookseller Kazanian in Dario Argento's Inferno (1980).
For the last ten years of his life, Pitoëff was a professor at the National School of Theatre Arts and Techniques (ENSATT) in Lyon, where his students included Gérard Depardieu, Jean-Roger Milo and Niels Arestrup.
Pitoëff was married to French actress Luce Garcia-Ville, until her death by suicide in 1975. He had two siblings, actress Svetlana Pitoëff and writer Aniouta Pitoeff.
His height and distinctively-gaunt, lanky appearance may have been a consequence of Marfan syndrome.
Having suffered from depression in the final years of his life, he died in Paris at Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital on 21 July 1990, at the age of 70.
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1955 | Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion | Bartender | Episode: "Camel Race" | |
| Sherlock Holmes | Constable Smith / Morgue Attendant / Gustav | 3 episodes | ||
| 1967 | Au théâtre ce soir | Antonio Fabrizzi | Episode: "Le système Fabrizzi", also director | |
| Lagardère | Prince Gonzague | 6 episodes | ||
| Henri IV | Henri | TV movie, also director | ||
| 1969 | Une soirée au bungalow | Northover | TV movie | |
| La cravache d'or | 12 episodes | |||
| 1970 | Le fauteuil hanté | Eliphas de la Nox | TV movie | |
| 1972 | Schulmeister, espion de l'empereur | Dangberg | Episode: "Schulmeister contre Schulmeister" | |
| Comme il vous plaira | Jacques de Boys | TV movie | ||
| Antigone | Tiresias | |||
| Graf Luckner | Dr. Morgan | Episode: "Der Jazzsänger" | ||
| 1973 | Byron libérateur de la Grèce ou Le jardin des héros | Baron de Blaquiere | TV movie | |
| Incident à Vichy | Prince von Berg | |||
| Arsène Lupin | Ignateff | Episode: "L'écharpe de soie rouge" | ||
| 1974 | Graf Yoster | Professor Ourbiche | Episode: "Die Feuer-Probe" | |
| Des lauriers pour Lila | Professor Hassman | 5 episodes | ||
| Notre correspondant à Madras | Jim Sieger | TV movie | ||
| 1975 | Les grands détectives | Arkabad | Episode: "Nick Carter: Mission secrète" | |
| 1976 | La poupée sanglante | Dr. Sahib Khan | 6 episodes | |
| Le château des Carpathes | Gortz | TV movie | ||
| 1977 | The Magical World of Disney | Sergeant | Episodes: "Barry of the Great St. Bernard (Parts 1 & 2)" | |
| The New Avengers | Kerov | Episodes: "K Is for Kill (Parts 1 & 2)" | ||
| 1979 | La maréchale d'Ancre | Samuel | TV movie | |
| 1980 | Louis XI, un seul roi pour la France | Drunk | ||
| 1981 | Les amours des années folles | The Abbot | Episode: "La femme qui travaille" |
| Year | Title | Venue | Director | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1939 | An Enemy of the People | Théâtre des Mathurins | Georges Pitoëff | ||
| The Lady of the Camellias | |||||
| 1951 | Vogue la galère | Théâtre de la Madeleine | Georges Douking | ||
| 1953 | L'Épouse injustement soupçonnée | Théâtre des Noctambules | Himself | ||
| Dolorès au balcon | |||||
| 1953 | Le Gardien des oiseaux | ||||
| 1955 | Andréa ou la fiancée du matin | Théâtre de l'Œuvre | |||
| Three Sisters | |||||
| 1956 | The Lower Depths | ||||
| 1959 | Uncle Vanya | Théâtre des Champs-Élysées | |||
| 1960 | Three Sisters | Théâtre de l'Alliance française | |||
| 1961 | The Seagull | Théâtre Moderne | |||
| 1962 | Ivanov | ||||
| 1963 | Le système Fabrizzi | ||||
| 1964 | Uncle Vanya | ||||
| 1965 | Comme un oiseau | ||||
| The Cherry Orchard | |||||
| 1967 | The Seagull | ||||
| 1967-68 | Henry IV | ||||
| 1968 | Der schwarze schwan | ||||
| 1969 | Uncle Vanya | ||||
| The Caretaker | Jean-Laurent Cochet | ||||
| 1970 | Henry IV | Himself | |||
| Three Sisters | Théâtre des Célestins | Himself | |||
| 1971 | The Caretaker | Théâtre des Célestins | Jean-Laurent Cochet | ||
| Tour | |||||
| 1972 | L'Impromptu de Paris | Bellac Festival | Edmond Tamiz | ||
| 1973 | Le Borgne | Théâtre de l'Athénée | Michel Fagadau | ||
| 1976 | La Tour | Théâtre Récamier | Antoine Bourseiller |