Pierre-Richard Maurice Charles Léopold Defays was a French film actor and film director. Upon reaching adulthood, Pierre Richard left for Paris to enroll in drama courses. His paternal grandfather opposed this, which led to a break with the family. The actor has two sons, both musicians: Olivier Defays, a saxophonist, and Christophe Defays, a double bassist. He managed to enroll in the famous drama courses of Charles Dullin, and then he did an internship with Jean Vilar. However, he had no luck in the theater; he was always given supporting roles. He had to earn extra money by performing on the stages of café-theaters, ordinary cabarets, and prestigious music halls. Richard was a good dancer. In 1967, director Yves Robert invited him to shoot the film "The Blissful Alexander." Subsequently, Richard starred in his well-known films about the adventures of the tall blond man. These films ("The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe," 1972, and "The Return of the Tall Blond Man," 1974) brought him his initial fame in France and around the world.

In 1976, Pierre Richard starred in the film "The Toy," directed by Francis Veber. In 1981, in the same Veber's film "Les Compères," the famous comic duo of Pierre Richard and Gérard Depardieu was born. This film set record box office receipts, and Veber made two more films with these actors: "Les Pères" (1983) and "Les Fugitifs" (1986). In 1996, Richard starred in the film by Georgian director Nana Dzhordzhadze, the political comedy farce "A Chef in Love." At the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, Richard was awarded a prize for Best Actor. Since 1996, Pierre Richard has been acting at the Aleph Theater. With the play "Murder in Valparaiso," he visited Ukraine, Russia, and Georgia. In 2015, France hosted the premiere of the film "Agafya," based on the stories of A. P. Chekhov. In this film, after almost 30 years, the acting duo of Pierre Richard and Gérard Depardieu reunited once again.