Pierre Richard

Funnyman Pierre Richard is considered a national treasure in France, beloved for his talents as a slapstick comedian and for his onscreen persona as a bumbling dreamer with a sweet soul, in the Charlie Chaplin/Jacques Tati vein. Although he has consistently worked as a performer and filmmaker since the late 1960s, his fame stems from a series of goofball comedic movies from the early 1970s. He is best known internationally for his role as an idiotic musician who is fingered as a spy, but who clearly isn't, in the espionage spoof "The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe" and its sequel. His zany physical dexterity and identifiable persona were also put to good use in the 1970 romantic comedy "The Daydreamer," which was also Richard's directorial debut. One of his most successful team-ups was with Gérard Depardieu in a number of successful movies in the 1980s, including "La Chèvre," "Les Compères," and "Les Fugitifs." He switched gears a bit as a performer in the 1997 movie "A Chef in Love," infusing a sense of melancholy into his performance as a chef with an impeccable nose for food.