Jean-Marie Winling

Though Jean-Marie Winling is a veteran actor who has been appearing onscreen since the early 1970s, he is arguably best-known to the French viewing public for his recent role in the extremely popular "Nicholas Le Floch" TV movies, adaptations of Jean-Francois Parot's 18th century adventure novels in which Winling plays Monsieur Le Noblecourt, the epicurean lawyer who provides the titular hero with room and board. Winling's long involvement in acting began when, as a classics graduate, he enrolled at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art in Paris, where he studied drama. He subsequently joined the Mehmet Ulusoy Theatre before founding the Theatre National de Chaillot with former classmate Antoine Vitez, a future head of the Comédie-Française. Since he first started acting, Winling has been prolific on stage and on both the small and big screens, collaborating with such directing greats as Claude Chabrol ("The Girl Cut in Two") and Jean-Paul Rappaneau ("Cyrano de Bergerac," "The Horseman on the Roof"), as well as Gallic acting legends like Gérard Depardieu ("Bérénice"), Alain Delon ("A Crime") and Catherine Deneuve ("Belle Maman"). Winling got to show off his singing voice when he collaborated with Christophe Honoré, one of France's most gifted young directors, on the offbeat 2007 contemporary musical "Love Songs."