Michel Dejeneffe, creator of Tatayet, dies in France

Belgian ventriloquist Michel Dejeneffe, the creator of the famous puppet character Tatayet, has passed away at the age of 76 or 77 in the Saint-Étienne region of France.

Dejeneffe gained widespread fame through his partnership with Tatayet, a character born in 1975 from a fur collar gifted to him by a resident of a nursing home. The duo became icons of Belgian television on RTBF with "The Tatayet Show" from 1986 to 1992, and were also well-known to French audiences through appearances on shows hosted by Michel Drucker and Patrick Sébastien.

Beyond television, Dejeneffe's work extended to music, books, and comic books. He retired from his career in 2017 to focus on training young ventriloquists and was active in local cultural life in the Forez region. His funeral is scheduled to take place on August 12 in Andrézieux-Bouthéon.