Bertrand Renard was born in Paris. He studied classics at the Sorbonne, He passed one Agrégation de Lettres Classiques but failed overall. Interested in television, he did not retake the exam. He was a good student, but acknowledged his lack of interest. He is a passionate student of history and was described as having hyperthymesia, memorizing without any effort. He stated that he was "absolutely not interested in mathematics and science".
Career
''Des chiffres et des lettres''
In September 1974, Renard participated at age 19 on the game show Des chiffres et des lettres. He was noticed for his facility with mental calculation and by his shy attitude, hiding behind long hair and thin mustache, which he kept, as well as his anxious attitude, continuously moving on his chair. After twelve victories in a row, he earned 6,000 francs. In March 1975, the producer, Armand Jammot, hired him to join the team as a presenter, replacing Fabien Buhler. He was known as "Monsieur Calcul". Renard explained his hiring by the fact that "the game was at that time presented by Patrice Laffont who was 35. 'Monsieur Dictionnaire' was Max Favalelli, who was much older, 70. And I was the youngest, so it created a sort of balance". They put him in charge of verifying game results with numbers and calculation titled "Le Compte est bon". Renard took charge in 1975 with Favalelli of the part with letters and words titled "Le Mot le plus long", and then with Arielle Boulin-Prat in 1986, replacing Favalelli. The other presenters were Patrice Laffont first, and since 1992, Laurent Romejko. For more than 39 years he daily officiated without interruption on the show. He has never taken a vacation, afraid that he would be replaced. He is the oldest presenter, appearing on the oldest program, on French television. Michel Drucker started earlier, but appeared less often because he appeared daily.
Other programs
Renard wrote a collection of stories and two novels. One obtained the a prize from the Société des gens de lettres. He also wrote a newspaper column. In 1987, he was one of the members of the programL'Assiette anglaise presented by Bernard Rapp, with Christine Bravo and Jean Teulé, as a literature columnist. In 1991, he participated in the program My télé is rich. He also participated at Télématin and Jamais sans mon livre in 1993.
