Saying goodbye to a favored actor is never an easy thing but it is necessary at times. Andre Maranne, known to many thanks to the Pink Panther movies, passed away recently at the age of 94, having enjoyed a successful career and a long and interesting life. Looking at his filmography it’s easy to state that he didn’t have the most impressive career in the history of show business, but he wasn’t an idle man either considering the number of credits that he amassed in his time. Thinking of how much he must have seen come and go during his time is intriguing since one has to think that upon entering show business that every person has some preconceived notion of what life will be like, a notion that is either likely to be shattered or altered in some way. If such a thing ever happened to Andre he did well to get past it since his career took off at one point and didn’t slow down that often over the years as he continued to show up on a fairly regular basis until 1991 when he retired. The veteran actor had been away from the business for three decades by the time he passed, and it’s easy to wonder if he missed it in any way, or if he was glad to be away from the hustle and bustle that show business has become over the years. There are many differences between the business as it existed in his time and now, as many actors would like to attest to since the fact is that the methods, techniques, and styles of filming and acting have changed over the years, as have the actors, who are still in the habit of acting, but have learned and built upon the efforts of those that have come before them.
Actors such as Andre have been paving the way for years as they’ve continued to serve as examples for those that came after them, much as the generations before them did the same. Acting is, after all, a learning process as much as a career and there are many actors that have come before that have managed to inspire those that have been entertaining audiences for decades. If not for those actors that have come before and the examples they’ve set it’s very likely that the material we watch these days wouldn’t be quite as impressive since there wouldn’t have been as many individuals to learn from and to improve upon when it came to their acts. One thing that any actor should be glad to see is someone that comes after them using their material to reach even greater heights than they did, no matter that it might be kind of crushing to the ego at times since yes, watching someone take what you’ve done and do so much better with it can be kind of irritating. But when one learns how to look at such things without spite they realize that they managed to set the building blocks for what would come next and that the next levels will be possible because they took the effort to be there and to do the work. Actors such as Andre are bound to go down in history and in some ways be forgotten simply because the past isn’t always on display and as such people will let the memory slip.
But the upside of this is that his name is already etched into the history books and his presence will be remembered in one way or another by those that recall watching his performances when they were younger and later on in life as well. It’s hard to say what it’s like being an actor with any accuracy when one has never done it, but at best guess it would appear that one often has to struggle to get into the business, do what it takes to maintain a reputation, undergo a bit of soul-searching at times, deal with the ups and downs of the business, and in the end try to sort it all out into a career that is something a person can be proud of when looking back. It does feel as though Andre could do this and enjoy his memories of times when he was at the top of his game and even when he wasn’t really firing on all cylinders as often. His passing is sad for all those involved, there’s no other way to say it, but one thing that does need to be said is that he had a nice, long life and a very successful career while he was around, so the sadness is muted just a bit in this case, as honoring an individual that’s seen the passage of so many years is far easier. He’ll be missed, there’s no doubt of that.
