Gérard Rinaldi

Rinaldi died of lymphoma on March 2, 2012. He was 69. A few days later, holding back his tears Jean Sarrus (Les Charlots) paid homage to his friend and had this to say about him : "Gérard was the soul of Les Charlots. He excelled in everything he did : he had this wonderful singing voice, but mostly as a writer, that's what he liked to do above everything else : writing songs. I admired his great sense of humor and his ability to laugh about everything, all the time. As he was dying, he even made us laugh about his cancer, I saw him on his hospital bed and he just tried to make me laugh in spite of the morphine kicking in. I'm going to miss him a lot." Luis Rego (Les Charlots) also reacted to his friend's death, saying that he was very sad and had a lot of admiration for Gérard Rinaldi : "he was so gifted that he would have had a great career even without Les Charlots".

Ten days after Rinaldi's death, the theatre world was reunited at Le Théâtre de la Michodière in Paris for a special homage. Ex-members of Les Charlots Jean Sarrus, Jean-Guy Fechner and Richard Bonnot (Rinaldi's replacement in the group from 1986 to 1992) were present to pay their respects. Actors Gérard Jugnot, Marie-Anne Chazel, Marie-Pierre Casey, Marthe Villalonga and many others paid their respects to their friend.

He was an actor, known for Les quatre Charlots mousquetaires (1974), Les Charlots en folie: À nous quatre Cardinal! (1974) and Les fous du stade (1972). He was married to Marie Langlois and Micheline Widerman.

Gérard Rinaldi was born on February 17, 1943 in Paris, France.