François Périer

François Périer — Biography

Born François Pillu in the 16th arrondissement of Paris on 10 November 1919, François Périer trained at the Cours Simon drama school and, across a career of more than sixty years, took roles in close to a hundred and twenty films and television productions. He first drew notice on stage originating Hugo in the 1948 premiere of Jean-Paul Sartre's Les Mains Sales; on screen he played Heurtebise in Jean Cocteau's Orphée, a police inspector in Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samouraï, the prosecutor in Costa-Gavras's Z, Albert Borelli in Stavisky, Orgon in Le Tartuffe, and Rosinsky in Max et les Ferrailleurs. His performance in René Clément's Gervaise won him the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in 1957, and his stage work earned him the Prix du Brigadier; he also lent his voice to spoken recordings that popularized classical music in France and narrated the French-language release of Disney's Fantasia. He was made a Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres. With his first wife, Jacqueline Porel, he had two children, photographer Jean-Marie and journalist Anne-Marie; he later married Marie Daëms. Périer died in Paris on 28 June 2002 at 82 of a heart attack in his sleep, and was buried at Passy Cemetery beside Réjane, the stage actress who was his first wife's grandmother.