Hergé, the Belgian writer/artist of the world-famous Tintin comics, thought Noiret was the ideal choice to play a live-action version of Tintin's character 'Captain Haddock'.
A two-time César Award (the French Oscar) winner, Noiret never tried to become a star in Hollywood.
Known for his droopy bloodhound features, Noiret was in real life an avowed dog lover.
He was once a nightclub entertainer.
He was a favorite of director Bertrand Tavernier.
After failing the baccalauréat (the high school diploma in France) exams three times, he decided to train in theater.
Noiret played the Walter Matthau role in the Paris stage production of Neil Simon's play 'The Odd Couple'.
He was honored with a special tribute during the Annual Memorial Ceremony at the 79th Academy Awards (2007).
He was the only French actor with a major role in 'The Return of the Three Musketeers' (1989). Ironically, his character, Cardinal Mazarin, was Italian, even though he served as Prime Minister of France from 1642 to 1661.
In 1963, together with Jean-Pierre Darras, he recorded the French songs 'Consuela', 'Marche Grecque', 'Mon Grand' and 'Paris-Paname', written by Henri Betti (music) and Jean Cosmos (lyrics).
Noiret did not believe in watching footage from the shoot. He did not want to see his work in fragments before the film was edited.
In 2005 he received the Légion d'Honneur, France's highest decoration.
After spending his early years as an actor at the French National Theater (T.N.P.), Noiret entered cinema in 1956.
He was the brother-in-law of actor François Chaumette.
He trained at the Centre Dramatique de l'Ouest.
He appeared in three films nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film: 'Three Brothers' (1981), 'Coup de torchon' (1981) and 'Cinema Paradiso' (1988) — the last of which won the award in that category. He also appeared in 'The Postman' (1994), which was nominated for Best Picture.
He was the uncle of actress Sarah Chaumette.
His nightclub comedy career, in which he performed duets with Jean-Pierre Darras, developed; in this duo, while Darras played the playwright Jean Racine, Noiret played Louis XIV in an exaggerated wig. In these roles they satirized the policies of Charles de Gaulle, Michel Debré and André Malraux.
Noiret was cast primarily as an Everyman character, but he did not shy away from accepting controversial roles such as 'La Grande Bouffe', about a suicide by overeating that caused a scandal at Cannes in 1973, and in 1991 André Téchiné had Noiret play a melancholic older homosexual obsessed with young male flesh in 'J'embrasse pas' (I Don't Kiss).
Noiret's film debut (1949) was an uncredited role in 'Gigi', directed by Jacqueline Audry.