Handsome, contemplative lead who catapulted to stardom opposite Brigitte Bardot in "And God Created Woman" (1956), fell out of the spotlight after being drafted into the Algerian War and regained his prominence with "A Man and a Woman" (1966). Experienced on stage, Trintignant has been most effective in romances and political films, from the classic "Ma Nuit Chez Maud/My Night at Maud's" (1969), portraying an almost desperately ethical Catholic engineer given to debating the nature of carnality and diversion, to Costa-Gavras' political thriller "Z", (also 1969), for which he earned a Best Actor award at Cannes. In Bertolucci's "The Conformist" (1970), he famously inhabited the part of an intense Fascist party member with an unerring stare, a man driven to sexual and political sadism. Trintignant brilliantly admixed a film noir roughness and an effete passivity.
After these various acting coups, he made a surprisingly impressive directing debut with "A Well-Filled Day" (1973). He went on to star in numerous European films, including "L'Argent des Autres/Other People's Money" (1978), playing the scapegoat of a cover-up, and Francois Truffaut's "Vivement Dimanche!/Confidentially Yours" (1983) as a suspected murderer. Keeping busy, Trintignant appeared in the last of Krzysztof Kieslowski's "Three Colors" trilogy, "Rouge/Red" (1994), playing a cynical ex-judge who finds hope in Irene Jacob's young Swiss model.
Divorced from actress Stephane Audran, he had been married to director-screenwriter Nadine Trintignant (nee Marquand) since 1960 and was the father of actress Marie Trintignant.