One of the last giants of French cinema, Pierre Richard, celebrates his 90th birthday on August 16. Along with Louis de Funès and Gérard Depardieu, many consider Richard to be one of the greatest French comedians of the last 50 years. He is also a film director, screenwriter and occasional singer. Read interesting facts from his life.
Pierre Richard, born Pierre Richard Maurice Charles Léopold Defays, became famous in the 70s and 80s of the 20th century in a number of film comedies, where he mostly portrayed cranky, distracted and timid heroes. Among his most famous films are The Big Blonde with Black Shoes, The Return of the Big Blonde, Mustard Gets Up My Nose, Distracted, Life is Full of Misfortunes or Cloud in the Teeth.
Pierre Richard was born into a wealthy family of a textile industrialist from Valenciennes with an aristocratic pedigree of the old Italian family of De Faillis. The head of the family was his strict grandfather, because the father left the family before Pierre was born. He spent his childhood and part of his adolescence in his hometown, where he lived in a house full of luxury and servants. He studied at Henri-Wallon High School, but he said he didn’t like attending it very much. He often preferred to go to the theater instead. In short, he was drawn to acting from a young age.
Even though acting was his dream, he always kept a back door in case it didn’t work out. And so he studied kinesiotherapy, which is one of the basic pillars of physiotherapy. Actually, it was also a little bit to thank his family. But later he decided to go to Paris on his own to study dramatic arts at the famous Ecole Charles Dullin and fulfill his dream.
But his noble grandfather did not like it at all. The family stopped funding him and his grandfather left him out of his will. This forced him to eventually make a living in healthcare. In between, however, he added skits in theaters and cabarets. He was inspired by Louise de Funés gags and classic American slapstick.
He got more success when he formed a duo with Victor Lanoux, and together they performed comedy skits in famous Parisian cabarets. In 1968, Pierre Richard began his film career in the film Alexandre le bienheureux. However, the role in the film Big Blond with Black Shoes from 1973 probably earned him the most.
The grandfather only took mercy on him in 1970, when Pierre’s father brought him a poster for the film Distracted. He said then that he was the only grandson of his who would make it somewhere.
As for his personal life, he was married three times, but unfortunately none of the marriages lasted in the end. But he has two sons from them, Olivier and Christophe. In addition to acting, he was also involved in directing, screenwriting and occasionally music. He is also a passionate winemaker, which led him to start a wine business in 1986. He also has his own restaurant Au pied de chameau in Paris.
Even at the age of 90, Richard is still in great shape. When he visited the Czech Republic in 2018 to take part in the charity gala dinner of the Beauty of Helping Taťana Kuchařová foundation for the second time. The first time was in 2014. He said at a press conference that he owes his good health to wine. He also admitted that, in his opinion, Prague is one of the most beautiful cities. “In addition, it is lively, there are many nice cities, but they are cold. There is music everywhere here,” he said.
Even though Richard is 90 years old today, he is not going to retire from the stage just yet. At the Théâtre Anthéa in Antibes, for example, in February according to News played in the show Je suis là, mais je ne suis pas là! (I’m here, but I’m not here!) And he’s still not done with the movie either. His latest comedy Fêlés should arrive in French cinemas this August 28. Last year we could also see him as Panoramix in the movie Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Kingdom.
Resources: Armenpress, KiddleCurrently, List Medium, Here is, CloserČSFD
