Richard-Willm, Pierre

(1895-1983)

   Actor. Born Pierre Richard, Pierre Richard-Willm made his screen debut at the beginning of the sound era and went on to become one of the dashing leading men of the 1930s and 1940s, appearing in nearly forty films. Richard-Willm debuted in Alberto Cavalcanti's Toute sa vie (1930) and went on to appear in Cavalcanti's Les Vacances du diable (1931), Alexandre Ryder's Un soir au front (1931), Henri Chomettes and Robert Siodmak's Autour d'une enquête (1931), Pierre Billon and Carl Lamac's La Fille du régiment (1933), Marcel L'Herbier's L'Épervier (1933), La Route impériale (1935), La Tragédie impériale (1938), and Entente cordiale (1939), Jean de Marguenat's Le Prince Jean (1934), Billon's La Maison dans la dune (1934), Courrier sud (1936), and L'Argent (1936), Jacques Feyder's Le Grand jeu (1934) and La Piste du nord (1939), Tony Lekain and Gaston Ravel's Fanatisme (1934), Alexis Granowsky's Les Nuits muscovites (1934), Julien Duvivier's Un carnet de bal (1937), Marc Allegret's La Dame de Malacca (1937), and Max Ophuls's Werther (1938), among other films.

   Richard-Willm's career showed signs of slowing during the 1940s, as he appeared in fewer films although typically in the lead role. He acted in such films as Jacques de Baroncelli's La Duchesse de Langeais (1942), André Berthomieu's La Croisée des chemins (1942), Robert Vernay's Le Comte de Monte Cristo (1943), Serge de Poligny's La Fiancée des ténèbres (1945), Christian Stengel's Rêves d'amour (1947), and Louis Cuny's Le Beau voyage (1947). He played in a wide array of films of different types. He was a dramatic, not a comic, actor. Probably because of his striking good looks and his elegance of presentation, he quite often played military men and aristocrats. He retired from the cinema in 1947 and devoted the rest of his career to the theater.

   Historical Dictionary of French Cinema by Dayna Oscherwitz & Mary Ellen Higgins