Pierre Renoir

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Pierre Renoir
Renoir in 1943
Born(1885-03-21)March 21, 1885
DiedMarch 11, 1952(1952-03-11) (aged 66)
OccupationActor
Years active1907–1952
Spouse
(m. 1914; div. 1925)
ChildrenClaude Renoir
Parent(s)Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Aline Charigot
RelativesJean Renoir (brother)
Sophie Renoir (granddaughter)

Pierre Renoir (March 21, 1885 – March 11, 1952) was a French stage and film actor. He was the son of the impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir and elder brother of the film director Jean Renoir. He is also noted for being the first actor to play Georges Simenon's character Inspector Jules Maigret in Night at the Crossroads, directed by his brother.

Life and career[edit]

Renoir in a painting by his father Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1895-96)

Pierre Renoir was born on March 21, 1885, in Paris, at 18 rue Houdon, about a hundred meters from place Pigalle, to painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Aline Charigot.[1] He was married to actress Véra Sergine from 1914 to 1925.

For his best remembered role, as Jėricho the ragman in Children of Paradise (Les Enfants du Paradis, 1945), he was cast at short notice to replace the collaborator Robert Le Vigan; Jėricho's scenes had to be reshot after Le Vigan fled. Renoir was briefly the director of the Théâtre de l'Athénée in Paris, taking over after the death of Louis Jouvet in 1951. Pierre Renoir's son was the cinematographer Claude Renoir (1913–93)[2]—not to be confused with Pierre's brother Claude Renoir, known as 'Coco' (1901–69).[3]

Selected filmography[edit]

Pierre Renoir in the American trailer for Children of Paradise (1945)

References[edit]

  1. ^ Pharisien, Bernard (November 2003). Pierre Renoir (in French). Bar-sur-Aube: Némont. ISBN 978-2-913163-10-2. OCLC 70158287. Archived from the original on December 5, 2008. Retrieved April 24, 2010.
  2. ^ Eric Pace "Claude Renoir, 79, A Cinematographer With a Painter's Eye", New York Times, 13 September 1993
  3. ^ "Renoir mss., ca. 1913-1968", Indiana University Online Archives

External links[edit]