Journalist, theater man and polemicist Philippe Tesson, father of writer Sylvain Tesson, died at the age of 94, the Théâtre de Poche-Montparnasse in Paris told AFP on Thursday, February 2, that he was directing
He died at his home in Chatou (Yvelines) on Wednesday, said the jury for the Interallié prize, which he chaired, confirming information from “Figaro”.
Philippe Tesson had been the editor of the legendary newspaper “Combat” from 1960 to 1974, before founding his own newspaper, the “Quotidien de Paris”, which he directed for 20 years (1974-1994). With this liberal daily, support of Valéry Giscard d’Estaing before opposing the Socialists and François Mitterrand, he had set foot in the stirrup for many personalities: Eric Zemmour, Jean-Marc Sylvestre, Catherine Pgard, Claire Chazal…
He had left the newspaper in 1994, two years before it ceased publication for financial reasons.
In the 90s, a wider audience had discovered his verve and his blue eyes on TV shows, where he intervened as a polemicist and willingly took the posture of the “react” assumed.
A theater in Montparnasse
“Today, I am resolutely on the right. At 90, we are no longer on the left. Even Mélenchon will change”had fun this passionate about politics, friend of Pierre Mauroy (his classmate at the college of Cateau-Cambrésis) and declared support of Emmanuel Macron in 2017.
His other passion was the theatre. He had notably written as a theatrical critic in “Le Canard enchaîné” or “Le Figaro” and in 2011 bought the Théâtre de Poche-Montparnasse, which he directed with his daughter, Stéphanie Tesson.
Father of two other children, the writer Sylvain Tesson and the journalist Daphné Tesson, Philippe Tesson was born into a bourgeois family from Picardy, in Wassigny (Aisne) on March 1, 1928.
With his doctor wife, Marie-Claude Millet (1942-2014), he also founded “The Doctor’s Daily” and “The Pharmacist’s Daily”.
He continued to chair the jury for the Interallié prize until the end, which he had joined in 1993.
