Farewell to the actor Philippe Leroy, the Yanez of ‘Sandokan’
Goodbye to Philippe Leroy: the French actor adopted by Italy died in Rome at the age of 93, after a long illness. Performer of almost 200 films and TV dramas, he made his mark on the Italian public as Yanez in ‘Sandokan’ on Rai in 1976 alongside Kabir Bedi. His last appearances were as the bishop in the fiction Don Matteo and in the film ‘The night is small for us’ by Francesco Lazotti, in 2019.
Born in Paris on 15 October 1930 to an aristocratic family with six generations of soldiers and ambassadors behind him, at 17 he embarked as a cabin boy on a ship to America, then enlisted in the Foreign Legion and went to fight in Indochina and Algeria.
He arrived at the cinema with ‘The Hole’ by his friend Jean Becker. In the 1960s he moved to Rome and success came in 1965 with the successful film ‘Seven Golden Men’ by Marco Vicario in which he plays the mastermind of a gang of robbers, alongside Rossana Podesta’ and Gastone Moschin. In 1971 he also broke through on TV as Leonardo da Vinci in the homonymous drama by Renato Castellani.
Five years later the consecration with ‘Sandokan’ which kept 30 million Italians glued in front of the TV: “Yanez is me”, he loved to repeat of his memorable interpretation, always with hat and cigarette in his mouth, “he is a character that I Persecuted by playing him, I felt like I was reliving my life. The six months spent between Malaysia and studying Bollywood, however, were the most extraordinary of my entire career. In entrusting me with the role a gift”. In 1990 he married Silvia Tortora, who passed away in 2022, with whom he had two children.
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