CLAUDE RICH

(8 February 1929 - 20 July 2017)

The French actor and writer Claude Rich, who has died at the age of 88, was a very successful performer in his native country. Rarely seen in international movies, he acted in over a hundred French films and television productions. His first film was René Clair’s Summer Manoeuvres (1955) with Michèle Morgan and Gérard Philipe. He worked again with Clair on Tout l’or du monde and Love and the Frenchwoman, with Jean Renoir in The Vanishing Corporal, Claude Chabrol on The Seven Deadly Sins, Édouard Molinaro on The Gentle Art of Seduction (and several other titles), with René Clément on Is Paris Burning?, Truffaut on The Bride Wore Black, Resnais on Stavisky, Private Fears in Public Places and Je t’aime, je t’aime, among many other films. He won a César (the French Oscar) for playing Talleyrand in Le souper, and he was Panoramix in Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra. His last film was Ladygrey in 2015. Claude Rich and his wife Catherine Renaudin had two daughters, actress Delphine and painter Nathalie, and an adopted son, Remy.

MICHAEL DARVELL