Actor Pierre Vernier is dead

We knew his face, but not always his name. Pierre Vernier died on Wednesday October 9 at the age of 93. He was one of the last of the band from the Drama Conservatory. That of the 1954 class with Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Rochefort, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Françoise Fabian, Bruno Crémer… He is one of those who carried Bebel in triumph on the stage of the Odéon where the competition tests took place exit and witness his friend’s arm of honor towards the jury. “ An intimate bond was built. I was hooked right away with this band. Yet we were very different from each other! », he confided in The Bébel Gangby Philippe Durant, Editions L’Archipel, 2019).

Born Pierre Rayer on May 25, 1931 in Saint-Jean-d’Angély, in Charente-Maritime, Pierre Vernier made his cinema debut in Prairie Streetwith Jean Gabin (in 1959) whom he will find in The Gardener of Argenteuil. In the 1960s, Claude Chabrol, who also contributed to the beginnings of Belmondo, spotted his elegant and supple figure and directed him in Les Godelureaux, Ophélia et Landru, where he gave him a lawyer’s costume.
He became famous playing the title role in the soap opera Swiss rolladapted from the work of Ponson du Terrail by Jean-Pierre Decourt (1964-1965). A former convict turned vigilante. For the needs of the role, the young actor learned judo, karate and horse riding. A horse lover like Jean Rochefort – later, he would even advise Belmondo for his daughter – he gallops throughout the seventy episodes of the series.

“Bébel’s” friend

Pierre Vernier has been in great demand on television for series and fiction: from Bowler Hat and Leather Boots to Fabien de la Drôme, to The Elder of Ferchaux by Bernard Stora, in the early 2000s when he found Belmondo. “ Jean-Paul » held on to it, he said. Moreover, since their first film together, Sunday Buddies by Henri Aisner released in 1958, Bebel often calls on his “friend”.

Pierre Vernier is therefore his partner in theater and cinema. He thus portrays the Prince of Wales in Kean, the noble De Guiche in Cyrano de Bergeracthe facetious Tournel in The Flea in the Ear or Adrien Worms in Le Nouveau Testament by Guitry where he also plays opposite Françoise Fabian and Jean-Pierre Marielle. He is also in Frederick or the boulevard of crime by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, directed by Bernard Murat at the Marigny theater (1998).

Cult films

For the big screen, they share the set of Weekend at Zuydcoote, by Henri Verneuil, Is Paris burning? by René Clément, Staviskyby Alain Resnais, The Guignolo et The Professionalby Georges Lautner or Itinerary of a spoiled child by Claude Lelouch in which Pierre Vernier plays an abbot (1988) or The stranger in the houseagain from Lautner who entrusted him with the role of president of the Court of Assizes (1992).

At the beginning of the 2000s, Pierre Vernier became departmental president of the Association of Visitors to Patients in Hospitals in Gers where he retired. “ I remember going on stage with Jean-Paul Belmondo who, after a cruel family bereavement, continued the show. My commitment stems from my profession as an actor », he explained in La Dépêche du Midi in 2006.

At the same time, François Ozon hired him to Under the sand with Bruno Crémer. In 2008, he played the General in the television film Farewell de Gaulle by Laurent Herbiet inspired by the book by Hervé Bentégeat (The Flight to Baden) which earned him an award as best actor at the Luchon and Monaco festivals. Valérie Lemercier will call on him for her comedies (100% Cashmeree, 2013) and Marie-Francine (2017). In 2016, Pierre Vernier was made an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters and a Knight of the National Order of Merit.