Pierre Richard
Pierre Richard is a French actor, film director and screenwriter, best known for the roles of a clumsy daydreamer in comedy films. Richard is considered by some, such as Louis de Funès and Gérard Depardieu, to be one of the greatest French comedians of the last 50 years. He is also a film director and occasional singer.
Early life
Pierre Richard was born in a bourgeois family from Valenciennes. He is the grandson of Léopold Defays who was the director of the company Escaut-et-Meuse. His name comes from the stage name of Pierre Richard-Willm who was his mother's favorite actor. Richard spent his childhood and a part of his teenage years in his native city where he was a student at the Henri-Wallon high school.Skipping classes regularly to go to the cinema, it was Danny Kaye in Up in Arms that revealed his vocation. This was received with only a moderate enthusiasm by his family, but he decided nonetheless to go to Paris to study dramatic arts at the famous Ecole Charles Dullin. His debuts were far from brilliant and he studied kinesiotherapy to have a safety exit if needed, but did not renounce acting.
Acting career
After a short stint as an extra at Jean Vilar's Théâtre National Populaire, Pierre Richard started his career with Antoine Bourseiller and, to augment his income, created a comedy duet with Victor Lanoux. They performed with great success in famous Parisian cabarets and music-halls sketches they had written themselves. He then began his film career in 1968 in the film Alexandre le Bienheureux directed by Yves Robert. In 1970, he directed his first film Le Distrait, followed by Les Malheurs d'Alfred and Je ne sais rien mais je dirai tout . He worked again with Yves Robert for the film Le Grand Blond avec une chaussure noire and its sequel The Return of the Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe, both written by Francis Veber, who then cast him in the main role in his directorial film debut, Le Jouet . Their partnership achieved further success in three successful comedies of the early 1980s, La Chèvre, Les Compères and Les Fugitifs, which paired Richard with Gérard Depardieu. Richard returned behind the camera to direct On peut toujours rêver and Droit dans le mur.Recurring names
Among his most famous film roles, Richard came to play different characters with the same name but without any link between them. He is named :- François Perrin in the films :
- *The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe and The Return of the Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe, a violinist used as a "booby trap" and taken as a secret agent,
- *On aura tout vu, a photographer who writes a script and sells it to a producer of pornographic films,
- *The Toy, an unemployed journalist bought as a toy in a big store by the son of a powerful and wealthy businessman,
- *La Chèvre, an incredibly unlucky accountant sent to Mexico and assistant of a private detective ;
- Pierre Renaud in the films :
- *Je suis timide mais je me soigne, a hotel cashier suffering of a sickly shyness and attempting to seduce a rich customer with the help of a marital agent,
- *C'est pas moi, c'est lui, a ghostwriter writing for the same author and getting his chance working for a famous producer ;
- François Pignon in the films :
- *Les Compères, a depressive unemployed teacher, in charge of an investigation with a macho journalist,
- *Les Fugitifs, a father of a five-year-old girl, unemployed for three years, attempts a bank robbery and forces a former burglar to accompany him as he leaves the scene.
Other activities
Since 1986, Richard has also become a businessman and winemaker. He owns the restaurant Au pied de chameau in Paris and a 50-hectare vineyard which produces some 80,000 bottles a year labelled as Château Bel Évêque in Gruissan in the department of Aude.Personal life
Married and divorced three times, Richard has two sons who are both actors and musicians, Olivier is a group member of "Blues trottoir" and plays the saxophone and Christophe plays the double bass. His grandson, Arthur Defays, is a model and actor.Filmography
Richard has played in all the films he has directed.| Year | Title | Role | Director |
| 1958 | Montparnasse 19 | uncredited | Jacques Becker |
| 1967 | An Idiot in Paris | a policeman | Serge Korber |
| 1968 | Alexandre le Bienheureux | Colibert | Yves Robert |
| 1968 | La Prisonnière | uncredited | Henri-Georges Clouzot |
| 1969 | ' | Pierre | Christian-Paul Arrighi |
| 1969 | ' | the painter | Marcel Moussy |
| 1970 | Le Distrait | Pierre Malaquet | Pierre Richard |
| 1972 | Les malheurs d'Alfred | Alfred Dhumonttyé | Pierre Richard |
| 1972 | Le Grand Blond avec une chaussure noire | François Perrin | Yves Robert |
| 1973 | ' | the learner | Raymond Devos and François Reichenbach |
| 1973 | Je sais rien, mais je dirai tout | Pierre Gastié-Leroy | Pierre Richard |
| 1974 | Juliette and Juliette | Bob Rozenec | Remo Forlani |
| 1974 | ' | Prévot | |
| 1974 | Lucky Pierre | Pierre Durois | Claude Zidi |
| 1974 | Le Retour du Grand Blond | François Perrin | Yves Robert |
| 1975 | Trop c'est trop | a policeman | |
| 1975 | La Course à l'échalote | Pierre Vidal | Claude Zidi |
| 1976 | On aura tout vu | François Perrin | Georges Lautner |
| 1976 | The Castaways of Turtle Island | Jean-Arthur Bonaventure | Jacques Rozier |
| 1976 | Le Jouet | François Perrin | Francis Veber |
| 1978 | Je suis timide mais je me soigne | Pierre Renaud | Pierre Richard |
| 1978 | La Carapate | Jean-Philippe Duroc | Gérard Oury |
| 1980 | C'est pas moi, c'est lui | Pierre Renaud | Pierre Richard |
| 1980 | Le Coup du parapluie | Grégoire Lecomte | Gérard Oury |
| 1981 | La Chèvre | François Perrin | Francis Veber |
| 1983 | ' | Pierre Cohen | Bernard Guillou |
| 1983 | Les Compères | François Pignon | Francis Veber |
| 1984 | Le Jumeau | Matthias et Mathieu Duval | Yves Robert |
| 1985 | Tranches de vie | Dubois | François Leterrier |
| 1986 | Les Fugitifs | François Pignon | Francis Veber |
| 1988 | ' | Mangeclous | Moshé Mizrahi |
| 1988 | À gauche en sortant de l'ascenseur | Yann Ducoudray | Édouard Molinaro |
| 1990 | Promotion canapé | the informant | Didier Kaminka |
| 1990 | ' | the hitchhiker | |
| 1991 | ' | Charles de Boisleve | Pierre Richard |
| 1992 | ' | Charlie | |
| 1993 | ' | Bertrand Daumale | |
| 1994 | ' | Ambroise | |
| 1995 | ' | Squirrat | Benoît Barbier |
| 1997 | A Chef in Love | Pascal Ichak | Nana Dzhordzhadze |
| 1997 | ' | Romain | Pierre Richard |
| 2000 | 27 Missing Kisses | Captain | Nana Dzhordzhadze |
| 2003 | Mariées mais pas trop | Maurice Donnay | Catherine Corsini |
| 2003 | Les Clefs de bagnole | as himself | Laurent Baffie |
| 2004 | ' | Jean-René | |
| 2005 | ' | Christian | and |
| 2006 | ' | Yves-Marie's father | Pierre-François Martin-Laval |
| 2006 | Le Serpent | Cendras | Éric Barbier |
| 2008 | Faubourg 36 | Max | Christophe Barratier |
| 2008 | ' | William-Fernand | Pierre-François Martin-Laval |
| 2009 | A Happy Man | Pierre Martin | Robert Ménard |
| 2009 | Victor | Victor Corbin | |
| 2009 | ' | cameo appearance | Yann Moix |
| 2011 | All Together | Albert | Stéphane Robelin |
| 2012 | Mes héros | Jean | Éric Besnard |
| 2016 | Lost in Paris | Norman | Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon |
| 2017 | Mr. Stein Goes Online | Pierre Stein | Stéphane Robelin |
| 2018 | Mrs. Mills | Albert Dupont, alias Mrs. Scarlett Mills / Mr. Rosenberg / Léonard Chomsky. | Sophie Marceau |
| 2018 | ' | Pierrot | Christophe Duthuron |
| 2021 | ' | Pietro | Lorenzo Bianchini |
| 2022 | Umami | Rufus | Slony Sow |
| 2022 | Pattie and the Wrath of Poseidon | Zeus | David Alaux |
| 2023 | Jeanne du Barry | Marshal de Richelieu | Maïwenn |
| 2023 | Michel |
Publications
- Pierre Richard and Jérémie Imbert, Je sais rien mais je dirai tout. Preface by Gérard Depardieu. Éditions Flammarion, 2015.
Distinctions
- Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 1996 : Best Actor for A Chef in Love
- Just for Laughs Festival of Montréal 2004 : Honorary Prize
- 31st César Awards 2006 : Honorary Cesar
- Magritte Awards 2015 : Honorary Prize
- Chevalier of the Legion of Honour