In 1942, at fourteen years old, Jacques Sereys lived in Marseille above a perfume warehouse. Never having met his father, he went through his childhood amidst the two women who brought him up, his grandmother, a cook in some bourgeois families, and his mother. His mother had learnt the art of embroidery, on the hands of nuns, notwithstanding another art she acquired from them, namely the art of leading a modest life. During the same time period, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Orson Wells finished directing Citizen Kane, Carné was producing L_es Visiteurs du soir_ and Lubitsch was working on To Be Or Not To Be. He was just fourteen years old, and, for everyone, he went by the name of “Jacky.”

Badly seeking to help his mother, he worked as a groom at the Crédit Lyonnais Bank, where he was expected to do everything – something he did — yet still found some time to read Proust and attend gatherings involving a number of amateur artists who incited him to read poems, write some, and recite them. The child became an avid reader, and the reader turned into a storyteller, who yearned to learn the craft of an actor. Five years later, in 1947, he left for Paris. At the age of 19, he had already read all the classics, got rid of his provincial accent and tried to enroll at the Conservatoire (National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts of Paris). Henceforth, he worked, read and learnt prior to joining the Comédie-Française in 1955.

He always had a penchant for irregularity, never failing to look for change. Therefore, and during thirty years, he left the Maison de Molière in 1965 for the first time, joined it again in 1978 to stay there until 1997. He was at the core of the golden age, growing up amidst great masters such as Beaumarchais and Marivaux and fellows like Jacques Charon, Robert Hirsch, Jean Piat, and Françoise Seigner. Alain Feydeau, with whom he shared a dressing room, used to call him “ma petite mouche bleue” (my little bluebottle), hence the nickname “mouchy” which would accompany him for long.
Always keen on big opposites, he dealt with laughter and tears, from boulevard plays to classic ones, staged Edmond Rostand’s L’Aiglon and rethought, reshaping the staging mechanism of Not Now, Darling starring Poiret and Serrault. He played Feydeau and Genet, danced and sang the role of Menelaus in La Belle Hélène (The Beautiful Helen) at the Opéra Comique and introduced Giraudoux to the Comédie-Française’s repertoire. Goldoni was his favorite author, going from La Locandiera (The Mistress of the Inn), The Impresario from Smyrna, La Serva amorosa (The Loving Maid), to The Villeggiatura Trilogy, all staged, of course, by Giorgio Strehler.

In the movies, Jacques Sereys appeared in Louis Malle’s Le Feu Follet (The Fire Within) in 1963, made his comeback almost thirty years later in The Horseman on the Roof, and recently in Pascal Thomas’ Mon petit doigt m'a dit (By The Pricking of My Thumbs). During the 2000 decade, this fine orator, awarded the Molière for Best Actor, performed Du côté de chez Proust, and Sous le soleil de Daudet, under the direction of his best friend and colleague, Jean-Luc Tardieu.

Jacques Sereys was named a sociétaire honoraire of the Comédie-Française in 1997. During the 2007-2008 season, General administrator Muriel Mayette-Holtz organized a tribute evening in his honor, “Grand portrait” hosted by Pierre Notte, then general secretary, at the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier.