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 many, such as Louis de Funès and Gérard Depardieu, to be one of the greatest and most talented French comedians in 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. Pierre 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 being received with only a moderate enthusiasm by his family, he had to learn a real profession. He then studied kinesiotherapy without renouncing acting.
Acting career
Pierre Richard started his career in the theater with Antoine Bourseiller and producing himself in famous cabarets from Paris, where he played his first sketches written with Victor Lanoux. He then began his film career in 1968 in the film Very Happy Alexander directed by Yves Robert. In 1970, he directed his first film Le Distrait, followed by Les Malheurs d'Alfred and I Don't Know Much, But I'll Say Everything. He worked again with Yves Robert for the film The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe 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 debut, The Toy. 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, Pierre 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 "fool's 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
Personal life
Married and divorced three times, he has two sons who are both actors and musicians, Olivier is a group member of "Blues trottoir" and plays the saxophone whereas Christophe plays the double bass. His grandson, Arthur Defays, is a model and actor.Filmography
Note : Pierre Richard has played in all the films he has directed.| Year | Title | Role | Director |
| 1958 | Les Amants de Montparnasse | uncredited | Jacques Becker |
| 1967 | Alexandre le bienheureux | Colibert | Yves Robert |
| 1967 | ' | a policeman | Serge Korber |
| 1968 | La prisonnière | uncredited | Henri-Georges Clouzot |
| 1969 | ' | Pierre | Christian-Paul Arrighi |
| 1970 | Le Distrait | Pierre Malaquet | Pierre Richard |
| 1970 | ' | the painter | Marcel Moussy |
| 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 | La moutarde me monte au nez | Pierre Durois | Claude Zidi |
| 1974 | Le retour du grand blond | François Perrin | Yves Robert |
| 1975 | Trop c'est trop | cameo appearance | |
| 1975 | La Course à l'échalote | Pierre Vidal | Claude Zidi |
| 1976 | On aura tout vu ! | François Perrin | Georges Lautner |
| 1976 | ' | 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 | cameo appearance | Didier Kaminka |
| 1990 | Bienvenue à bord ! | 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 | |
| 2008 | Faubourg 36 | Max | Christophe Barratier |
| 2008 | ' | William-Fernand | Pierre-François Martin-Laval |
| 2009 | Victor | Victor | |
| 2009 | cameo appearance | Yann Moix | |
| 2009 | Le Bonheur de Pierre | Pierre Martin | Robert Menard |
| 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 | Monsieur Pierre | Stéphane Robelin |
| 2021 | Umami | Rufus | Slony Sow |
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
Documentaries
- Un jour, un destin : Pierre Richard, l'incompris. Broadcast on France 2 on 6 September 2015 and again on 31 December 2015.