Philippe Richard

Biography

Philippe Richard (born in Saint-Étienne, 1891; died in Paris, 1973) was a French actor who worked in both film and theatre. He started appearing in films in the early 1920s, during the silent era, and continued working through the sound period and into the postwar years.

Over his career Richard appeared in a wide range of French productions, from the crime and melodrama films of the 1930s to period dramas and comedies of the late 1940s and 1950s. Among his notable credits are Pépé le Moko in 1937 and a number of later French features. In 1948 he starred in The Lame Devil for director Sacha Guitry, one of the more prominent projects of that period.

He spent much of his life in the theatre as well, and died in Paris in December 1973. His legacy rests mainly on his steady presence in French cinema across several decades, as a dependable supporting and lead performer in an industry of studio-era popular films.

Key films

• Pépé le Moko (1937)
• Zou Zou (1934)
• Fin de jornada (1939)
• El enemigo público número 1 (1953)
• Las aventuras de Edmundo Dantés (1954)