Departures of note

Yves Brunier was a French puppeteer, author and actor, best known as the co-creator and performer of Casimir, the gentle orange dinosaur of the children's television program L'Île aux enfants. Born in Lyon in 1943, he studied at the École nationale des arts appliqués and the ENSATT before working as a stage manager and assistant set designer in Parisian theatres. A decisive encounter with puppeteer Philippe Genty led to a world tour and the television series Le tour du monde des marionnettes, and their show won the recital prize at the international puppet festival in Bucharest, opening doors to revues at the Casino de Paris and in Las Vegas.

In 1974, Christophe Izard asked Brunier to create a gentle monster for L'Île aux enfants. The result was Casimir, which aired for eight years and marked an entire generation of French children; in 1999 a Télé Star and IFOP poll named Casimir the greatest children's character of the 20th century. Brunier went on to create characters for Le Village dans les nuages, the Bébête show, and numerous corporate mascots including the Crédit Lyonnais lion, the Esso tiger, Kellogg's Frosties tiger, Nestlé's Groquik, and Footix, the mascot of the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

A lifelong painter, Brunier also worked as an art critic and directed the Espace Art et Patrimoine of the Crédit Municipal de Paris. He was made a chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2010 and served as godfather of the children's rights federation La Voix de l'enfant. He published his memoirs, Dans la peau d'un monstre (gentil), in 2014.