Pierre Deny, the French actor best known to international audiences as Louis de Léon — the imperious luxury CEO in Netflix's Emily in Paris — died Monday. He was 69. The cause was complications from ALS, according to reporting by Variety.
Deny joined the Emily in Paris cast in a recurring capacity, playing a character whose business dealings and personal entanglements provided recurring friction across the show's seasons. Before Netflix, he worked steadily in French film and television for decades.
The timing is what it is: the show is currently filming its final season, the one meant to wrap the story cleanly. The cast is now one smaller than it was when cameras started rolling.
Netflix had not issued a public statement as of the time of filing. Neither had the production.
Deny's Louis de Léon was introduced, in part, to represent a certain kind of old-money French institutional power — the kind that does not explain itself. The role called for a man at the top of a hierarchy. He played it without apparent effort.
He was 69. The final season continues.