“He will never come back again”: Pierre Richard recounts a terrible event that marked his childhood

A nightmare come true. Far from bowing out, Pierre Richard has established himself as a major cinematographic reference. Yet behind his sympathy and the pranks that shake the halls of France lie dramatic moments of life. The one who will blow out his 92nd candle on August 16 lived a childhood marked by dramatic events in the construction of a toddler: a disinterested father – an absence that he accurately recounts in his autobiography “The Little Blond in a Big Park”without forgetting the assassination of his best friend during the Second World War. Years after this tragedy, initiated by the Nazis, Pierre Richard has still not recovered from the loss of this loved one, who branded him with a hot iron (and we understand it).

Pierre Richard: his best childhood friend was assassinated under the Vichy regime

There are memories that we would rather forget. Podcast guest Legendhosted by Guillaume Pley on YoutubePierre Richard evoked a gut-wrenching moment in history. An atrocious period of restrictions and where Nazi barbarism reigned supreme in France and elsewhere, of which the actor was an indirect witness. At the time, he was 10 years old, just like his neighbor and faithful friend: “He was curly haired, with big black eyes. He had an armband. Like all Jews, he was obliged to wear an armband”he confides. Although the two young boys attended the same school, one fine day his classmate and best friend missed a day of class, then two, then three: “On Monday he was not there, on Tuesday neither, on Wednesday neither and the teacher told us ‘My children, he will not come back’.” A speech that sends shivers down your spine.

Still too young, the man who would later become one of the best actors of his generation had never thought of the abominable fate that the Nazis had in store for his friend, like other Jews including Simone Veil. “It’s not at 10 years that we understand what happened, but afterward. Afterwards, I understood that he never came back because he […] must have ended up in a concentration camp.“ A chilling memory which pushes us even more towards the duty of memory.

Pierre Richard: this road accident which could have taken his life

More fear than harm. Touchingly clumsy, the father of Christophe and Olivier Defays often found himself in crazy and even dangerous situations. During an exchange with the media The Voice of the North, he returned to a once again traumatic event in his life: “When I passed the baccalaureate, they gave me a scooter, a Vespa. But one day, in front of the station, I got into a truck. The Vespa went under it, all the people rushed and the truck driver, crazy with worry, thought I was under the truck, but I wasn’t at all.”

Fortunately, he would have escaped safely thanks to survival reflexes: “J’ai plongé en arrière. Falls never did anything to me. […] This is how I escaped death.“he adds. His long-time friend points out that Pierre Richard is “a really clever clumsy guy.” Obviously used to falling, he ends with a bit of humor: “I fell a lot, but I catch up a lot”. A prodigy who often has bad luck.