There’s a Belgium proverb which says, “The word that is heard perishes, but the letter that is written remains.” Similarly, “the man who strips alone is briefly bare but the dude who doffs his duds on the silver screen will forever let his skin be seen!” Enter Belgian-born Jean-Louis Sbille, the French-speaking actor, artist, author, professor, and radio/television producer. Suffice it to say, the busy Belgian is a Jacques of all trades! After studying at Université Libre de Bruxelles, Jean-Louis published the New Wave art magazine Soldes Fins de Séries. As such, filmmaker Gérard Corbiau cast him as a critic in the Oscar-nominated foreign film The Music Teacher (1988). Roles on European TV shows (Carré d’as, Le R.I.F., Maigret, Nestor Burma) followed in the 1990s. By 2000, Monsieur Sbille played a spectator in Corbiau’s costume drama Le Roi danse (aka The King is Dancing) starring Benoît Magimel as Louis XIV and Tchéky Karyo as playwright Molière. Of course, Mr. Man was an eager spectator of Christian Volckman’s The Room (2019). The R-rated thriller features Kevin Janssens, Francis Chapman, and Mr. Sbille’s bare chest. Ooh la la! Even though his back has a rash and his skin sags, we appreciate the fact that the aged actor struts his stuff in the buff! Since then, Jean-Louis could be seen donning rags alongside Dominic West, David Oyelowo, and Lily Collins in a British adaptation of the Victor Hugo novel Les Misérables (2018). But recalling Jean-Louis in the nude makes us anything but miserable. Merci beaucoup!
