The actor Pierre Vernier, member of the “Bande du Conservatoire” in the 1950s with Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean-Pierre Marielle and Jean Rochefort, is no more. He died on Wednesday October 9, 2024 at the age of 93, AFP learned on Saturday from his relatives.
A prolific actor, he had appeared in around sixty films, including a good number of popular successes alongside his friend Bébel, such as The professional (1981) or Itinerary of a spoiled child (1988, in the role of a priest).
« Be careful, I also exist without him! », he had fun saying in 2001 about the one he considered to be “ embodied professional conscience “. Pierre Vernier was one of those actors whose name is not necessarily known to the general public, but whose face and appearance – tall elegant stature of a gentleman or bourgeois, sweet dreamy face and brown lock on the forehead – are to him familiar.
One of the last of the “Conservatoire Band” still alive
With Françoise Fabian, he was one of the last surviving members of the “Conservatoire Band”, essentially formed by students of the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art in Paris in the early 1950s. Besides Belmondo, its core, it notably included Jean Rochefort, Claude Rich, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Bruno Cremer and Annie Girardot. This group of friends eager for renewal and modernity in the aftermath of the war then stood out, both on stage and in town, with their outbursts against the system of the prestigious Conservatory which they considered dusty.
Born Pierre Louis Rayer in Saint-Jean-d’Angély, in Charente-Maritime, and died in Vic-Fezensac, in Gers, according to his relatives, Pierre Vernier had worked with great film directors, including Henri Verneuil and Joseph Losey (In Monsieur Klein with Alain Delon in 1976).
He had interpreted De Gaulle
A horse lover, like Jean Rochefort, Pierre Vernier was very active on television. In 2008, he played the role of General De Gaulle, for which he received several acting awards. On the small screen, it’s the soap opera Swiss roll and the role of the eponymous vigilante who made him famous in 1964. In the theater, Pierre Vernier had played under the direction of Raymond Rouleau, Georges Wilson, Jean-Louis Barrault and Roger Planchon.
Il « marked generations of spectators with his appearance and his familiar voice », Reacted the Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, paying tribute to him on the social network X.
« The long silhouette with the benevolent gaze of Pierre Vernier also fades », wrote on the same social network the former president of the Cannes Festival, Gilles Jacob, referring to “the 1954 Conservatory Band”.
Knight of the National Order of Merit, Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters, Pierre Vernier was very involved until the end of his life in the associative and charitable sector, underlined those around him.
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