One of the most important protagonists in the world, Remy Julienne, who worked on six James Bond films and also on the 1969 classic “The Italian Job”, died of Covid-19 at the age of 90, according to friends and family Friday.
A veteran of more than 1,400 films and television commercials as an actor or trick coordinator, Julienne had been in intensive care at a hospital in her hometown of Montargis, in central France, since early January.
“What had to happen has happened. He left us in the early hours of the evening (Thursday). It was predictable, he was wearing a respirator,” a relative told AFP.
Veteran trick pilot Remy Julienne, pictured, has died of Covid-19 at age 90. The legend has worked on six James Bond films and has starred in more than 1,400 films and television commercials since the 1960s.
One of his most memorable stunts – which made his name in the industry – was this jump through and alley between two Italian work buildings.
He also organized this incredible adventure in the 1981 James Bond film For Your Eyes Only
Julienne was born in Cepoy, near Montargis, in 1930.
French motocross champion, he began his film career in 1964 when he dubbed for French actor Jean Marais in the film “Fantomas”, in which he was required to ride a motorcycle.
“They needed someone very controlled,” he said of that experience. ‘It ended up being me. It was the beginning of a great adventure.
His career saw him fly over Venice hanging from a rope ladder suspended from a helicopter, being hit in the face with a pumpkin while riding a motorcycle and countless car accidents.
He voiced for some of the world’s most famous actors, including Sean Connery and Roger Moore, as well as first-rate French names, including Yves Montand, Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo.
He worked on six James Bond films in total, including ‘GoldenEye’ and ‘For Your Eyes Only’, in which he drove a heavily modified yellow Citroën 2CV during a memorable car chase.
As both an actor and a director of trick sequences, which became the focus of her later career, Julienne earned praise from some of the big names in cinema for her accuracy and creativity.
Remy Julienne, pictured here with Roger Moore at Walt Disney Studios in Paris in March 2002
In the 1989 License To Kill, he organized this trick that involved the destruction of an oil tanker. Julienne was known for her belief that tricks had to be real and not CGI-dominated
“He has an absolutely incredible scientific understanding. He is a true scientist, the Einstein of rattlesnakes,” French director Claude Lelouch said in a documentary for France Televisions that marked Julienne’s 50 years in the business.
Believing in real action rather than special effects, Julienne constantly worked to minimize the risks she ran during her filming, but was seriously injured early in her career while filming a Colombian production in Germany.
Lost time getting out of a car before it crashed into a ravine, he ended up with a crushed ankle that left him in bed for six weeks.
Once recovered, he would gain fame for his work for car chase scenes in ‘The Italian Job’ with Michael Caine.
“Fear is necessary before and after, but never during,” he once said about his passage through set.
The low point of his career came during the shooting of the French film ‘Taxi 2’ in 1999, which he was supervising, when a camera was killed by a car that lost its landing site after a salt.
Speaking of her dangerous job, Julienne once admitted that fear was okay both before and after a trick, but never during
In 2007 he was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 18 months suspended imprisonment, which was later reduced on appeal to six months and ordered payment of 60,000 euros to the victim’s family.
Julienne also helped police with crime reconstructions.
In 2000, he mounted a reconstruction of the death of a British student, Isabel Peake, to try to establish how the young woman was expelled from a train bound for Paris.
Julienne said the play “looks a lot like a movie, only here are we lucky enough to use mannequins, which puts some pressure on us.”