Pierre Richard

Pierre Richard (born Pierre-Richard Maurice Charles Leopold Defays; 16 August 1934, in Valenciennes) is a French actor, film director and screenwriter, best known for the roles of a clumsy daydreamer in comedy films. He is considered by some, such as Louis de Funes and Gerard Depardieu, to be one of the greatest French comedians of the last 50 years. Born into a bourgeois family from Valenciennes, he was a student at the Henri-Wallon high school before going to Paris to study dramatic arts at the Ecole Charles Dullin.

Richard started his career with Antoine Bourseiller and created a comedy duet with Victor Lanoux, performing in famous Parisian cabarets and music-halls. He began his film career in 1968 in Alexandre le Bienheureux directed by Yves Robert, and in 1970 directed his first film Le Distrait. He worked again with Yves Robert on 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 Toy (1976). Their partnership achieved further success in three comedies of the early 1980s, La Chevre (1981), Les Comperes (1983) and Les Fugitifs (1986), which paired Richard with Gerard Depardieu.

Among his most famous roles, Richard played different characters with the same name, including Francois Perrin, Pierre Renaud and Francois Pignon. Since 1986 he has also become a businessman and winemaker, owning a 50-hectare vineyard in Gruissan which produces some 80,000 bottles a year labelled as Chateau Bel Eveque. Married and divorced three times, he has two sons who are both actors and musicians. He was named Officer of the Legion of Honour and Officer of the National Order of Merit.