Jean-Loup Dabadie died this Sunday, May 24, at the age of 81, at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris. He was suffering from another illness that the coronavirus disclosed his agent to AFP. He was surely one of the most prolific authors that popular culture has known. He has written screenplays, songs, plays, sketches, novels…
An author who touched everything
During his career, he had written for many musicians. Among them, Julien Clerc (My preference), Barbara (Marie Chenevance), Michel Sardou (Jazz singer) and Michel Polnareff (Letter to France). He has won numerous prizes for his work for French music. The latest is that of 2009 at the Victoires de la musique for his honorary award for his entire career. On the cinema side, he had collaborated with Claude Sautet, among others. They had worked together for the screenplays for the films The Things of Life and Caesar and Rosalie. Jean-Loup Dabadie won his first film prize in 1969 with the Louis-Delluc Prize for Les Choses de la vie. In addition, he was nominated 3 times for the Césars (1977, 1978, 1979) and once for the Molières (1990). He was also the author of most of the sketches of Guy Bedos or Muriel Robin. 
Jean-Loup Dabadie was a jack-of-all-trades, which allowed him to join the Académie française in 2008. He did not consider himself a specialist in any particular discipline, but he wrote according to his mood and his encounters.
"When I finish writing a film, I'm happy to practice in another discipline, to take a ticket for another trip," he revealed in a masterclass in 2016.
Multiple tributes
Since this sad announcement, tributes have multiplied, especially from artists who have crossed his path. Julien Clerc considered Jean-Loup Dabadie as his older brother and testified:
"In the beginning he was an author before being a friend, then he became a friend before being an author."
The Minister of Culture Franck Riester also paid tribute on Twitter to this great man.
La France perd un auteur aux mille talents, inclassable et populaire. Les mots de Jean-Loup Dabadie exprimaient avec évidence et justesse nos sentiments jusqu’à accompagner chaque moment de nos vies. Nous retiendrons son sourire et son élégante discrétion. Je pense à sa famille. pic.twitter.com/gdpB45hSzd
— Franck Riester (@franckriester) May 24, 2020
