Home ›› 04 Oct 2021 ›› News
Bernard Tapie, the French business magnate, actor and politician whose swashbuckling career earned him millions of fans despite a litany of legal convictions, died aged 78 on Sunday after a four-year fight with stomach cancer.
"Dominique Tapie and his family have the immense sadness to announce the death of her husband and their father, Bernard Tapie, this Sunday," they said in a statement to La Provence newspaper in Marseille, in which Tapie was a majority stakeholder.
His death prompted condolences from politicians across the political spectrum, with President Emmanuel Macron hailing an "ambition, energy and enthusiasm that were a source of inspiration for generations of French people".
"This man, who had a combativeness that could move mountains and take down the moon, never gave up," his office said in a statement.
Dozens of admirers placed flowers outside Tapie's mansion in the posh Saint-Germain neighbourhood in Paris where he died.
"He's what you used to call a prole who succeeded in climbing the entire social ladder at a time when working your way up wasn't so easy," said Ludovic, a 23-year-old who regretted that "the media was beating up on him for 30 years".
Several French TV stations quickly changed their scheduled primetime programming for Sunday to air special reports, documentaries or several of his film and theatre performances.
Born in a rough corner of Paris on January 26, 1943, Tapie rose from modest beginnings to become one of France's most successful and high-profile businessmen, buying up and reviving dozens of failing companies and revelling in his wealth with American-style flair.
