Philippe Petit, born in Nemours, France, in 1949, is a French high-wire artist, artist, and author, world-renowned for his unauthorized walk on a steel wire stretched between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York on August 7, 1974. This feat, which he called "le coup," was preceded by other high-profile illegal walks, such as the one between the pylons of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia in 1973 and between the towers of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris in 1971. A self-taught artist, after the famous New York performance, he continued his career with dozens of performances, becoming an artist-in-residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. His story has inspired numerous works, including his memoir "To Reach the Clouds," which was adapted into the Academy Award-winning 2009 documentary "Man on Wire," and the 2015 film "The Walk," which have cemented his figure in popular culture.