Michel Modo

Michel Modo, born Michel Henri Louis Goi on 30 March 1937 in Carpentras, France, was a French actor, comedian, and Broadway performer. He died of cancer on 25 September 2008 in Vaires-sur-Marne, Seine-et-Marne, at the age of 71.

Modo made his Broadway appearance in 1958 as part of the cast of La Plume de Ma Tante, a French revue that earned him and his fellow company members a Tony Award Special Award in 1959.

In France, Modo became widely recognized through his long-running comedy partnership with actor Guy Grosso. The two formed a duo known as Grosso et Modo in the late 1950s and went on to appear together in numerous films alongside Louis de Funès, most notably in the Gendarmes de Saint Tropez series. In that franchise, Modo portrayed Constable Berlicot, sharing the screen with Michel Galabru, Jean Lefebvre, and Christian Marin. The duo also took on the roles of Laflûte and Quince in Jean-Christophe Averty's The Dream of a Summer Night.

Television work occupied a significant portion of Modo's later career. From 1993 to 1997, he appeared as a recurring character in the series Highlander, playing Maurice Lolande, a figure intended to represent the archetypal French everyman. In December 2005, he joined the cast of Plus belle la vie alongside Colette Renard, portraying a philosophical vagrant dressed as Santa Claus. Modo also contributed voice work to the French-dubbed version of the animated series The Simpsons, providing voices for several recurring characters. He was in the process of dubbing episodes from season 19 at the time of his death and was subsequently replaced by Gérard Rinaldi, who died from cancer on 2 March 2012.