(1934- )
Actor, director, and screenwriter. Pierre Richard was born Pierre Defays in Valenciennes. He studied drama under Jean Vilar at the Centre Dullin. He later wrote sketches for cabarets in which he performed solo or with Victor Lanoux. His first appearance as a film actor was in an uncredited role in Jaques Becker's Les Amants de Montparnasse (1958). He played a small role in Yves Robert's Alexandre le Bienheureux (1967) and would later star in Robert's hit Le Grand Blond avec une chassure noir (1972), Le Retour du grand blond (1974), and Le Jumeau (1984).
In 1970, Richard branched out into directing. His first feature film was Le distrait (1970), a film in which he played the leading role. He went on to direct such films as Les malheurs d'Alfred (1972), Je sais rien, mais je dirai tout (1973), Je suis timide . . . mais je me soigne (1978), C'est pas moi, c'est lui! (1980), On peut toujours rêver (1991), and Droit dans le mur (1997). He also starred in all of these films.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Richard was one of France's most popular comic actors. He starred in Claude Zidi's highly successful comedies La Moutarde me monte au nez (1974) and La Course à l'échalote (1976) and Gérard Oury's blockbuster La Carapate (1978) and La parapluie (1980). He also costarred with Gérard Depardieu in Francis Veber's La chèvre (1981), Les compères (1983), and Les fugitifs (1986), all of which were among the top French films in the year of their release. These films and others made Richard an international star. Later in the 1980s, Richard starred in Moshé Mizrahi's Mangeclous (1988) and Edouard Molinaro's A gauche en sortant de l'ascenseur (1988).
In the 1990s, Richard played leading roles in Jean-Louis Leconte's Bienvenue à bord (1990), Yves Hanchar's La Partie d'échecs (1994), Marco Pico's La Cavale des fous (1993), and Georgian director Nana Djordjadze's multilingual film A Chef in Love (1997). More recently, Richard played in Catherine Corsini's Mariées mais pas trop (2003) and starred in Damien Odoul's En attendant le déluge (2003). He has also done a number of television films.
Historical Dictionary of French Cinema by Dayna Oscherwitz & Mary Ellen Higgins
Guide to cinema. Academic. 2011.