Michael Sarrazin's poetic drifters crept into Hollywood unobtrusively on little cat's feet, but it didn't take long for him to make his mark. Quiet yet uninhibited, the lean, laconic, fleshy-lipped actor with the intriguingly faraway look and curiously sunken features enhanced a number of quality offbeat fare without ever creating too much of a fuss. While Hollywood couldn't quite pigeonhole him, they also weren't sure what to do with him. Out-and-out stardom would prove elusive.
He was born Jacques Michel Andre Sarrazin on May 22, 1940, in Quebec, Canada, and drifted through eight different schools before eventually dropping out. He worked at a Toronto theatre, on TV, and for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation during his teen years. He also studied acting at the Actors Studio in New York.
Michael Sarrazin's film debut was in the post-Civil War drama Gunfight in Abilene (1967) starring Bobby Darin. He played a guileless tenderfoot in A Man Called Gannon (1968) and shared the screen with Harrison Ford and Jan-Michael Vincent in Journey to Shiloh (1968). He earned a Golden Globe "best promising newcomer" nomination for portraying an aimless surfer in The Sweet Ride (1968).
Sarrazin's portrayal of his career as a wanderlust Depression-era floater plucked from the beach shore to participate in a grueling dance marathon in They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969) was both soft and spellbinding. His pairing with Jane Fonda was an eerie and ultimately doomed one resulting in a shattering climax. Remote and wordless, Sarrazin's strength lies in both his ease and passive defiance.
He continued to show a flair for the unconventional with the non-mainstream Believe in Me (1971) and The Pursuit of Happiness (1971). In Harry in Your Pocket (1973) Sarrazin again played the naive square who falls in with a bad crowd. He capped this radical run with a mesmerizing, intelligent, and sympathetic portrayal of the monster in the mini-movie Frankenstein: The True Story (1973).
A performance as the haunted title role in the psychological thriller The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (1975) proved to be one of his last hurrahs, as the film was a critical and box office failure. At this juncture his films (or his film roles) became underwhelming. He starred alongside Ursula Andress in the Italian film The Loves and Times of Scaramouche (1976),but the film was very poorly received.
Throughout the course of his career, Michael remained true to his homeland, appearing in many Canadian-based productions such as The Groundstar Conspiracy (1972),Double Negative (1980),Joshua Then and Now (1985),Captive Hearts (1987),The Phone Call (1989),La Florida (1993),and Crackerjack 2 (1997).
Michael Sarrazin moved to Montreal many years back in order to be near family. He died there following a brief bout with cancer at age 70 on April 17, 2011, and was survived by daughters Michelle and Catherine, as well as producer/brother Pierre Sarrazin.
