French actor Michel Piccoli, arthouse star, is dead at 94

French actor Michel Piccoli, a prolific screen star who appeared in landmark films by directors such as Luis Bunuel and Jean-Luc Godard, has died. He was 94.

His family confirmed to French media Monday that he died last week, but they did not give a cause of death.

Though less famous in the English-speaking world, in continental Europe and his native France Paris-born Piccoli was a stalwart of art house cinema.

FILE - In this May 16, 2007 file photo, jury member French actor Michel Piccoli poses during a photo call at the 60th International film festival in Cannes, southern France. Michel Piccoli, a prolific screen star whose served as muse to filmmaker Luis Bunuel and was a leading man for Jean-Luc Godard, has died. He was 94. (AP PhotoAndrew Medichini, File)

Beginning his career in the 1940s, he went on to make over 170 movies, working into his late eighties.

His most memorable appearance came arguably during the French New Wave – starring opposite Brigitte Bardot in Godard’s 1963 masterpiece “Contempt," with his dark hat and signature bushy eyebrows.

But Piccoli's performances for Europe’s most iconic directors will also be remembered, including for France’s Jean Renoir, Jacques Rivette and Jean-Pierre Melville, Britain’s Alfred Hitchcock and Spain’s Bunuel. For the Spanish director, Piccioli starred alongside Catherine Deneuve in the 1967 masterpiece “Belle de Jour” and in 1972's “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeosie,” which won the Best Foreign Film award at the Oscars.

File - In this May 13, 2011 file photo, from left, director Nanni Moretti and actors Michel Piccoli and Dario Cantarelli arrive for the screening of Habemus Papam at the 64th international film festival, in Cannes, southern France.Michel Piccoli, a prolific screen star whose served as muse to filmmaker Luis Bunuel and was a leading man for Jean-Luc Godard, has died. He was 94. (AP PhotoLionel Cironneau, File)

Despite starring in Hitchcock's 1969 English-language espionage thriller “Topaz,” Piccoli's career in Hollywood didn't take off.

In Europe, Piccoli won a host of accolades, including Best Actor in Cannes in 1980 for “A Leap In The Dark” by Marco Bellochio and a Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 1982 for “Strange Affair" by Pierre Granier-Deferre.

The actor’s last major role was in 2011's Nanni Moretti’s “Habemus Papam,” which premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival.

FILE - In this Sept.4, 2013 file photo, French actor Michel Piccoli gestures as he poses for photographers, during a retrospective of his career, in Paris. Michel Piccoli, a prolific screen star whose served as muse to filmmaker Luis Bunuel and was a leading man for Jean-Luc Godard, has died. He was 94. (AP PhotoThibault Camus, File)

Piccoli was married three times, to Éléonore Hirt, the singer Juliette Greco and finally to Ludivine Clerc. He had one daughter from his first marriage, Anne-Cordélia. Piccoli stayed with Clerc, whom he married in 1978, until his death.

FILE - In this May 13, 2011 file photo, French actor Michel Piccoli attends a press conference for Habemus Papam, at the 64th international film festival, in Cannes, southern France. Michel Piccoli, a prolific screen star whose served as muse to filmmaker Luis Bunuel and was a leading man for Jean-Luc Godard, has died. He was 94. (AP PhotoLionel Cironneau, File)

FILE - In this May 24, 1982 file photo, French actor Michel Piccoli, left, shown with French film director Jean-Luc Godard at the Cannes Film Festival, Cannes, France. Michel Piccoli, a prolific screen star whose served as muse to filmmaker Luis Bunuel and was a leading man for Jean-Luc Godard, has died. He was 94. (AP PhotoJean-Jacques Levy, File)

FILE --- French actor Michel Piccoli poses with the Leopard for best actor, he received in ex-aequo for his role in Hiner Saleem's film "Sous les toits de Paris", at the 60th International Film Festival Locarno, Saturday, August 11, 2007, in Locarno, Switzerland. Piccoli, aged 94, died May 12, 2020, according to AFP. (Martial TrezziniKeystone via AP)

FILE --- French actor Michel Piccoli during a press conference at the Cinematheque Suisse in Lausanne, Switzerland, October 27, 2008. Piccoli, aged 94, died May 12, 2020, according to AFP. (Laurent GillieronKeystone via AP)

LONDON (AP) — The BBC plans to ask a court to throw out U.S. President Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the British broadcaster, court papers show.

Trump filed a lawsuit in December over the way the BBC edited a speech he gave on Jan. 6, 2021. The claim, filed in a Florida federal court, seeks $5 billion in damages for defamation and $5 billion for unfair trade practices.

The speech took place before some of Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol as Congress was poised to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election that Trump falsely alleged was stolen from him.

The BBC had broadcast the documentary — titled “Trump: A Second Chance?” — days before the 2024 U.S. presidential election. It spliced together three quotes from two sections of the 2021 speech, delivered almost an hour apart, into what appeared to be one quote in which Trump urged supporters to march with him and “fight like hell.” Among the parts cut out was a section where Trump said he wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully.

The broadcaster has apologized to Trump over the edit of the Jan. 6 speech. But the publicly funded BBC rejects claims it defamed him. The furor triggered the resignations of the BBC’s top executive and its head of news.

Papers filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Miami say the BBC will file a motion to dismiss the case on March 17 on the basis that the court lacks jurisdiction and Trump failed to state a claim.

The broadcaster’s lawyers will argue that the BBC did not create, produce or broadcast the documentary in Florida and that Trump’s claim the documentary was available in the U.S. on streaming service BritBox is not true.

It will also argue that Trump has failed to “plausibly allege” the BBC acted with malice in airing the documentary.

Attorney Charles Tobin, for the BBC, said Trump can't prove actual damages because he won reelection by a commanding margin, and carried Florida by 13-point margin, better than his 2016 and 2020 performances. He said the documentary also couldn't have harmed his reputation because it aired after Trump was indicted by a federal grand jury over alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election, including allegations he “directed the crowd in front of him to go to the Capitol.”

The BBC is asking the court to postpone discovery — the pretrial process in which parties must turn over documents and other information — pending a decision on the motion to dismiss. The discovery process could require the BBC to hand over reams of emails and other materials related to its coverage of Trump.

“Engaging in unbounded merits-based discovery while the motion to dismiss is pending will subject defendants to considerable burdens and costs that will be unnecessary if the motion is granted,” Tobin wrote.

If the case continues, a 2027 trial date has been proposed.

“As we have made clear previously, we will be defending this case,” the BBC said Tuesday in a statement. “We are not going to make further comment on ongoing legal proceedings.”

FILE - Pedestrian walks outside the BBC Headquarters in London, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, file)

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters while in flight on Air Force One to Joint Base Andrews, Md., Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)