Pierre Richard

Pierre Richard
Richard in 2015
Born	Pierre-Richard Maurice Charles Léopold Defays (1934-08-16) 16 August 1934 Valenciennes, France
Occupation(s)	Actor, director, screenwriter
Years active	1967–present
Website	pierre-richard.fr

Pierre Richard (born Pierre-Richard Maurice Charles Léopold Defays; 16 August 1934) 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 (he wanted to play straight drama, which was not in his nature) and he studied kinesiotherapy to have a safety exit if needed, but did not renounce acting.

Acting career

Pierre Richard at the 31e cérémonie des César in 2006

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 (Very Happy Alexander) directed by Yves Robert. In 1970, he directed his first film Le Distrait, followed by Les Malheurs d'Alfred (1972) and Je ne sais rien mais je dirai tout (I Don't Know Much, But I'll Say Everything) (1973). He worked again with Yves Robert for the film Le Grand Blond avec une chaussure noire (The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe) (1973) and its sequel The Return of the Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe (1974), both written by Francis Veber, who then cast him in the main role in his directorial film debut, Le Jouet (The Toy) (1976). Their partnership achieved further success in three successful comedies of the early 1980s, La Chèvre (1981), Les Compères (1983) and Les Fugitifs (1986), which paired Richard with Gérard Depardieu. Richard returned behind the camera to direct On peut toujours rêver (1991) and Droit dans le mur (1997).

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 (Jean-Pierre Marielle),
  • The Toy, an unemployed journalist bought as a toy in a big store by the son of a powerful and wealthy businessman (Michel Bouquet),
  • La Chèvre, an incredibly unlucky accountant sent to Mexico and assistant of a private detective (Gérard Depardieu) ;
• 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 (Aldo Maccione),
  • C'est pas moi, c'est lui, a ghostwriter writing for the same author and getting his chance working for a famous producer (Aldo Maccione) ;
• François Pignon in the films :
  • Les Compères, a depressive unemployed teacher, in charge of an investigation with a macho journalist (Gérard Depardieu),
  • Les Fugitifs, a father of a five-year-old girl, unemployed for three years, attempts a bank robbery and forces a former burglar (Gérard Depardieu) 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 (red and rosé) 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	Alexandre le Bienheureux	Colibert	Yves Robert
	An Idiot in Paris	a policeman	Serge Korber
1968	La Prisonnière	uncredited	Henri-Georges Clouzot
1969	La Coqueluche	Pierre	Christian-Paul Arrighi
1970	Le Distrait (Absent-minded aka. The Daydreamer)	Pierre Malaquet	Pierre Richard
	Trois Hommes sur un cheval	the painter	Marcel Moussy
1972	Les malheurs d'Alfred	Alfred Dhumonttyé	Pierre Richard
	Le Grand Blond avec une chaussure noire	François Perrin	Yves Robert
1973	La Raison du plus fou	the learner	Raymond Devos and François Reichenbach
	Je sais rien, mais je dirai tout	Pierre Gastié-Leroy	Pierre Richard
1974	Juliette and Juliette	Bob Rozenec	Remo Forlani
	Un nuage entre les dents	Prévot	Marco Pico
	La moutarde me monte au nez (Lucky Pierre)	Pierre Durois	Claude Zidi
	Le Retour du Grand Blond	François Perrin	Yves Robert
1975	Trop c'est trop	cameo appearance	Didier Kaminka
	La Course à l'échalote	Pierre Vidal	Claude Zidi
1976	On aura tout vu	François Perrin	Georges Lautner
	The Castaways of Turtle Island	Jean-Arthur Bonaventure	Jacques Rozier
	Le Jouet (The Toy)	François Perrin	Francis Veber
1978	Je suis timide mais je me soigne	Pierre Renaud	Pierre Richard
	La Carapate	Jean-Philippe Duroc	Gérard Oury
1980	C'est pas moi, c'est lui	Pierre Renaud	Pierre Richard
	Le Coup du parapluie (The Umbrella Coup)	Grégoire Lecomte	Gérard Oury
1981	La Chèvre (Knock on Wood)	François Perrin	Francis Veber
1983	Un chien dans un jeu de quilles	Pierre Cohen	Bernard Guillou
	Les Compères (ComDads)	François Pignon	Francis Veber
1984	Le Jumeau (The Twin)	Matthias et Mathieu Duval	Yves Robert
1985	Tranches de vie	Dubois	François Leterrier
1986	Les Fugitifs	François Pignon	Francis Veber
1988	Mangeclous	Mangeclous	Moshé Mizrahi
	À gauche en sortant de l'ascenseur (Door on the Left as You Leave the Elevator)	Yann Ducoudray	Édouard Molinaro
1990	Promotion canapé	cameo appearance	Didier Kaminka
	Bienvenue à bord !	the hitchhiker	Jean-Louis Leconte
1991	On peut toujours rêver	Charles de Boisleve	Pierre Richard
1992	Vieille canaille	Charlie	Gérard Jourd'hui
1993	La Cavale des fous	Bertrand Daumale	Marco Pico
1994	La Partie d'échecs	Ambroise	Yves Hanchar
1995	L'Amour conjugal	Squirrat	Benoît Barbier
1997	A Chef in Love (Shekvarebuli kulinaris ataserti retsepti)	Pascal Ichak	Nana Dzhordzhadze
	Droit dans le mur	Romain	Pierre Richard
2000	27 Missing Kisses	Captain	Nana Dzhordzhadze
2003	Mariées mais pas trop	Maurice Donnay	Catherine Corsini
	Les Clefs de bagnole (The Car Keys)	as himself	Laurent Baffie
2004	En attendant le déluge	Jean-René	Damien Odoul
2005	Le Cactus	Christian	Gérard Bitton and Michel Munz
2006	Essaye-moi	Yves-Marie's father	Pierre-François Martin-Laval
	Le Serpent (The Serpent)	Cendras	Éric Barbier
2008	Faubourg 36	Max	Christophe Barratier
	King Guillaume	William-Fernand	Pierre-François Martin-Laval
2009	Victor	Victor	Thomas Gilou
	Cinéman	cameo appearance	Yann Moix
	A Happy Man (Le Bonheur de Pierre)	Pierre Martin	Robert Ménard
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
2018	Mrs. Mills	Albert Dupont, alias Mrs. Scarlett Mills / Mr. Rosenberg / Léonard Chomsky.	Sophie Marceau
2018	Tricky Old Dogs	Pierrot	Christophe Duthuron
2021	L'angelo dei muri	Pietro	Lorenzo Bianchini
2022	Umami	Rufus	Slony Sow
2023	Jeanne du Barry	Marshal de Richelieu	Maïwenn
2023	Two Words as the Key	Priest	Dan Svátek

Publications

• Pierre Richard (1989). Olivier Orban (ed.). Le petit blond dans un grand parc.
• Pierre Richard (2003). Cherche-Midi (ed.). Comme un poisson sans eau, détournement de mémoire.
• Pierre Richard; Gwendal Le Bec (2010). Gallimard Jeunesse Giboulées (ed.). Le petit blond avec un mouton blanc. Paris. p. 75. ISBN 978-2-07-062104-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Pierre Richard and Jérémie Imbert, Je sais rien mais je dirai tout (autobiography). 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 (Belgium) : Honorary Prize
• Chevalier (Knight) of the Legion of Honour

Documentaries

• Un jour, un destin : Pierre Richard, l'incompris (A film by Laurent Allen-Caron). Broadcast on France 2 on 6 September 2015 and again on 31 December 2015.
• Pierre Richard, the quiet one directed by Gregory Monro in 2018

External links

• Official website
• Official web television
• Site of wines by Pierre Richard
• Pierre Richard at IMDb