PARIS (AFP) — Award-winning French film director Pierre Granier-Deferre has died at the age of 80, his family told AFP on Saturday.
Granier-Deferre's long career in film included two awards for his 1981 "A Strange Affair", including the Interfilm award from the Berlin International Film Festival and the Prix Louis Delluc.
His best-known films include 1971's "The Widow Couderc" and "The Last Train" from 1973.
He worked with top French stars throughout the 1960's and 1970's, including Simone Signoret, Lino Ventura, Jean Gabin and Alain Delon.
Granier-Deferre directed his first big movie in 1962, and made 25 motion pictures over the next 30 years. He is also known for a French television series based on novelist Georges Simenon's Inspector Maigret stories.
Granier-Deferre had been hospitalised in Paris for several weeks before his death Friday, according to family members.
His funeral will be held on Friday at the Pere-Lachaise crematorium in Paris.
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