Pierre Richard

Born Pierre-Richard Maurice Charles Léopold Defays on 16 August 1934, he shed the long name for something shorter and made himself synonymous with the hapless dreamer, the man perpetually a half-step behind reality. The roles compounded into a singular screen persona: gentle, bewildered, endearing in disaster. Beyond acting, he directed films and occasionally sang, but the core stayed the same — that particular French strain of comedy where physical mishap meets melancholy, and the laugh comes with a sigh.