Roger Pierre(1923-2010)

Roger Pierre was born in Le-Port Marly, France 1923. In 1946 he had made his stage debut in a cabaret and was an extra in the war drama Le Père tranquille/Mr. Orchid (1946, René Clément) starring Noël-Noël. In 1947, he worked as a presenter of commercials at Radio-Luxembourg. There he met Jean-Marc Thibault whose texts he had to read. It was the start of a long career as a comedy duo in Parisian cabarets such as le Tabou, le Caveau de la Terreur, l'Amiral, and le Moulin-Rouge. The men wrote some 3,000 sketches and songs together. They appeared in many TV shows of Maritie and Gilbert Carpentier and also co-starred in several film comedies. These films included La Vie est belle/Life is Beautiful (1956, Roger Pierre, Jean-Marc Thibault), Vive les vacances/Gimme A Break (1958, Jean-Marc Thibault) written by Thibault and Pierre, Les Motards/The Motorcycle Cops (1959, Jean Laviron) also with Francis Blanche and co-written by Thibault and Pierre, Un cheval pour deux/A Horse for Two (1961, Jean-Marc Thibault) and Faites donc plaisir aux amis/So Be Happy with Friends (1969, Francis Rigaud). Together they also appeared in supporting parts in many other film comedies such as Nous irons à Deauville/We Go to Deauville (1962, Francis Rigaud) with Louis de Funès, and Les Baratineurs/The Talkers (1965, Francis Rigaud) starring Jean Poiret. Between 1967 and 1970, Thibault and Pierre presented the TV show Les Grands Enfants/ Big Kids. From 1972 rill 1975 they made everybody in France laugh with their historical comedy shows Les maudits rois fainéants/The Damned Lazy Kings and Les z'heureux rois z'Henri/The Happy Kings Henry. Their final films together were the comedies En grandes pompes/With Great Fanfare (1974, André Teisseire) with Ginette Leclerc, and Gross Paris (1974, Gilles Grangier).

In 1976 and after 28 years together, the artistic ways of Jean-Marc Thibault and Roger Pierre parted. In the following years Pierre appeared without Thibault in Comme sur des roulettes (1976, Nina Companeez), Mon oncle d'Amérique/My American Uncle (1980, Alain Resnais) with Gérard Depardieu, and Camera d'albergo/Hotel Room (1981, Mario Monicelli) starring Vittorio Gassman and also continued to work on stage and television. During the 1980's, he participated in Jeux de 20 heures; he cooperated on the cult TV show Grosses Têtes by Philippe Bouvard and also appeared in the TV show Incroyable mais vrai! At the age of 80 he played in the TV film L'Ami d'enfance de Maigret/The childhood friend of Maigret (2003, Laurent Heynemann), with Bruno Crémer as inspector Jules Maigret. He had his final film role in Les Herbes folles/Wild Grass (2009, Alain Resnais) with Sabine Azéma. Pierre and Thibault twice reunited. In 1984 they worked together for the spectacle Nos premiers adieux at the Théâtre Antoine in Paris and again in 1990 at l'Olympia. Roger Pierre, died of cancer in 2010 at the age of 86.