Pierre Richard: The tall blond with the 90th birthday

Hardly any other actor is as closely linked to the title of his first big box office hit as Pierre Richard (90). It is now more than half a century since the French comedian celebrated his international breakthrough with the spy film parody “The Tall Blond Man with the Black Shoe” in 1973, but especially in Germany, “The Tall Blond Man” is still considered an irrefutable synonym for the artist.

It doesn’t matter that Richard has since appeared in over 50 other films, that his hair has now turned snow white and that, as he joked in an interview with the “Badische Zeitung” a few years ago, he could now only be described as “the tall blond guy with the orthopedic shoe”.

Breakthrough as “The tall blond with the black shoe”

Pierre Richard owes his sudden worldwide fame with “The Tall Blond Man with the Black Shoe” largely to the enthusiasm with which the offbeat spy comedy was received by German audiences. When the film was released in French cinemas in December 1972, it was only a modest success. It was only after the film conquered cinemas a year later in a German dubbed version with much greater resonance that it became an international box office hit and, via this detour, finally made Pierre Richard a superstar in his home country too.

Caught in the comedic spiral of success

“‘The Tall Blond Man with the Black Shoe’ made me world famous, that changed everything” about the spectacular success. However, the role of the absurdly clumsy violinist in the film, who accidentally becomes the target of the secret services, committed him to such comedic roles for the rest of his life. “Perhaps this spiral of success with the comedies prevented me from thinking about the kind of cinema that really suits me,” says the elderly actor looking back.

In Germany in particular, the cult surrounding Pierre Richard and “The Tall Blond Man with the Black Shoe” took on grotesque features. In order to build on the huge success of this box office hit at any price, numerous other Richard comedies were released in the following years with German distribution titles that alluded to the “tall blond man”, although their content had no connection to the “original”. These included “The Tall Blond Man with Red Hair” (1974), “The Gentle Man with Fast Legs” (1978) and “The Tall Blond Man and the Little Black Man” (1975).

Career highlights with Gérard Depardieu

In the 1980s, Richard’s career reached another high point with several successful comedies alongside Gérard Depardieu (75). While Depardieu took on the role of the hard-boiled swashbuckler in “The Horned Ox and His Draft Horse” (1981), “Two Crazy Jokers” (1983) and “The Fugitives” (1986), Richard once again reliably embodied the lovable klutz that the audience associated with his name and expected from him.

It was only in later years that Pierre Richard attempted to shed his image of a perpetual klutz and prove his talent in serious roles, such as in the tragicomedy “Recipes of a Chef in Love” from 1996 or in the historical film “The Foundling” from 2000. Although these films were generally well received, they were much less popular with audiences than his action-packed comedies.

Although Richard continued to make films over the past three decades, only a few of them reached German audiences, and many never even appeared in cinemas here. Much-noticed exceptions were the French-German pensioner comedy “And if we all move in together?” from 2011, in which Richard shone alongside Jane Fonda (86), Geraldine Chaplin (80) and Daniel Brühl (46), as well as the relationship comedy “Monsieur Pierre goes online” (2017).

Comeback in Cannes with Johnny Depp

Pierre Richard most recently made it clear in May 2023 on the red carpet of the 76th Cannes Film Festival that he is still a big deal despite his advanced age, where he presented the opening film “Jeanne du Barry – The King’s Favorite” alongside US superstar Johnny Depp (61), for which both were in front of the camera.