The actor Pierre Vernier, member of the “Bande du Conservatoire” with Belmondo, has died

2024-10-12 14:47:00

The actor Pierre Vernier, member of the “Bande du Conservatoire” in the 1950s with Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean-Pierre Marielle and Jean Rochefort, died on Wednesday at the age of 93, AFP learned from his relatives on Saturday .

A prolific actor, he had appeared in around sixty films, including a good number of popular hits alongside his friend Bébel, such as “The Professional” (1981) or “Route of a Spoiled Child” (1988, in the role of a priest) . “Be careful, I exist even without him!” ,” he joked in 2001 about the man he considered “the embodiment of professional conscience.”

Pierre Vernier was one of those actors whose name is not necessarily known to the general public, but whose face and appearance – the stature of a tall gentleman, the dreamy face and the brown lock on the forehead – are familiar to him.

With Françoise Fabian he was one of the last surviving members of the “Conservatory Band”, formed essentially by students of the National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts in Paris in the early 1950s.

In addition to Belmondo, its core group included in particular Jean Rochefort, Claude Rich, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Bruno Cremer and Annie Girardot.

From General de Gaulle to theater stages

Born Pierre Louis Rayer in Saint-Jean d’Angely in Charente and died in Vic-Fezensac, Gers, Pierre Vernier had worked with great directors, including Henri Verneuil and Joseph Losey (in “Monsieur Klein” with Alain Delon in 1976) .

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 numerous acting awards.

On the small screen, it was the soap opera “Rocambole” and the role of the vigilante of the same name that made him famous in 1964. On the theatre, Pierre Vernier had acted under the direction of Raymond Rouleau, Georges Wilson, Jean-Louis Barrault or Ruggero Planchon.

Knight of the National Order of Merit, Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters, Pierre Vernier was very busy until the end of his life in the associative and charitable sector, those around him underlined.