“We knew he was an actor, but my idol was Steve McQueen”: Jean Gabin's son was in Carcassonne to sign the book dedicated to his father

It was in June 2017, while he was in Carcassonne as part of the Documentary Meetings at the Cité, that Mathias Moncorgé, son of Jean Gabin, met the deputy mayor of Carcassonne Laurence Gasc. They became friends. “When he released his book, co-written with his friend Patrick Glâtre, I told Mathias that he had to come to Carcassonne to autograph it for me”says Laurence Gasc. “And then we found this weekend, where I told him that it wouldn’t be bad to also benefit the Carcassonnais…”

Saturday November 30, 2024, this is how Mathias Moncorgé took place at the Maison de la Presse on rue Georges Clemenceau, for a signing session of his book “Jean Gabin”, created on the occasion of the event ” Jean Gabin. The Exhibition”, which was held in Boulogne-Billancourt from March 9 to July 10, 2022… From the start of the signing session at 10 a.m., there was already a crowd to approach the man whose resemblance to his father is quite disturbing. “It's incredible, it arouses a lot of emotion in me. I can't believe it! Every time someone tells me that I look like my father, I think back to mom who told me Don't forget that When people see you, they see him!”

In this book “Jean Gabin”, published by La Martinière and co-written with Patrick Glâtre, Mathias Moncorgé paints a portrait of the actor, but also of the man that his father was in everyday life. “He had a very long cinematic career, from pre-war to post-war, but in between he fought in the war. He was a tank commander, even though he was claustrophobic and he had afraid of fire… My father is someone who loved his country, he didn't give a damn about fame. Dad, for all the people who followed him through the generations, was always a straight guy! even in the roles he played in movie theater…”

Dad, he was there all the time.

Moved and amused when we talk to him about the relationship he had with his famous father, Mathias Moncorgé recalls a happy childhood: “With my half-brother and my two sisters, you could say that we had parents at home. We knew he was an actor, but my idol was Steve Mcqueen… Dad, he was always “He's someone who refused to work when we were on vacation. And then he sometimes took us with him for the filming of Clan of the Sicilians, I remember that we went to Rome for ten days.”

This Saturday, November 30, while the signing session was supposed to end at noon, the sixty copies of the book “Jean Gabin” flew away well before, in the space of an hour. A well-made book with magnificent photos, with a poignant preface by actor Alexis Moncorgé, son of Mathias and grandson of Jean Gabin.