Pierre Renoir

Pierre Renoir (; 21 March 1885 – 11 March 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

Pierre Renoir was born on 21 March 1885 in Paris, at 18 rue Houdon, about a hundred meters from place Pigalle, to painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Aline Charigot. 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) not to be confused with Pierre's brother Claude Renoir, known as 'Coco' (1901–69).

Selected filmography

La Digue (1911, Short) – Pierre Wallen Les deux gosses (1916) – Le lieutenant Jacques d'Alboise Marion Delorme (1918) – Le roi Louis XIII The Whirlpool of Fate (1925) – Farmer Morgane, the Enchantress (1928) Night at the Crossroads (1932) – Le commissaire Maigret The Agony of the Eagles (1933) – Montander Madame Bovary (1934) – Charles Bovary La Route impériale (1935) – Maj. Hudson Tovaritch (1935) – Gorotchenko La Bandera (1935) – Le capitaine Weller Veille d'armes (1935) – Le commandant Brambourg Under Western Eyes (1936) – Un Policier Wolves Between Them (1936) – Gottfried Welter When Midnight Strikes (1936) – Jean Verdier De Man Zonder Hart (1937) – Sourdier Widow's Island (1937) – Ralph Berry Boissière (1937) – Le général baron von Hubner The Citadel of Silence (1937) – Le colonel-comte Stepan Iporievitch Mollenard (1938) – Bonnerot La Marseillaise (1938) – Le Roi de France Louis XVI Légions d'honneur (1938) – L'avocat Dumas White Nights in Saint Petersburg (1938) – Ivan Borowsky The Lafarge Case (1938) – Charles Lafarge The Patriot (1938) – Le comte de Pahlen Satan's Paradise (1938) – Paraíso de Satã (1938) – Aristophélès La Piste du sud (1938) – Stolberg Sirocco (1938) – L'archéologue André Chervin The Rebel (1938) – Capitaine Yorritz Serge Panine (1939) – Cayrol Coral Reefs (1939) – Abboy Nord-Atlantique (1939) – Le capitaine Jeff Cooper Personal Column (1939) – Brémontière Nadia la femme traquée (1940) – Daminoff Those of the Sky (1941) – Pierron L'embuscade (1941) – Jean Guéret The Pavilion Burns (1941) – Jourdinsse Foolish Husbands (1941) – Jules Donaldo Macao (1942) – Werner von Krall (1942 version only) The Law of Spring (1942) – Frédéric Villaret The Newspaper Falls at Five O'Clock (1942) – François Marchal The Trump Card (1942) – Rudy Score L'appel du bled (1942) – Michaud The Wolf of the Malveneurs (1943) – Reginald de Malveneur Madame et le mort (1943) – Charles de Bruine Tornavara (1943) – Sigurd Framrus Traveling Light (1944) – Georges Renaud Les Enfants du paradis (1945) – Jéricho Father Goriot (1945) – Vautrin St. Val's Mystery (1945) – Le docteur Dartignac Marie la Misère (1945) – Pierre Desormes Resistance (1945) – Le colonel Special Mission (1946) – Landberg alias Moravetz – le chef du réseau d'espionnage alleman The Captain (1946) – Le duc d'Angoulême Coincidences (1947) – Monsieur Bardolas Les trafiquants de la mer (1947) – Le prince Boris Mentischev Secret Cargo (1947) – Le préfet de police The Eleven O'Clock Woman (1948) – Le docteur Gérard Pescara La grande volière (1948) – Vallette Scandal on the Champs-Élysées (1949) – Dominique Airelle The Mystery of the Yellow Room (1949) – Professeur Stangerson The Farm of Seven Sins (1949) – Le procureur Edmond de Chancey The Ferret (1950) – Le docteur Darvel-Juste Death Threat (1950) – Bernier Dr. Knock (1951) – Le pharmacien Mousquet Judgement of God (1952) – Le duc Ernest de Bavière (final film role)