Bernard Blier

1916-1989

Biography: life and films

Abstract picture representing Bernard Blier
Bernard Blier was a French film actor. He was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 11 January 1916 and died in Saint-Cloud, France on 29 March 1989. The son of Jules Blier, a biologist at the Pasteur Institute, Bernard Blier hated school and began taking drama lessons when he was 15. On the fourth attempt, he was admitted to the Paris Conservatoire, a leading drama school, in 1937. As he began a promising stage career, Blier started to appear in films, in minor roles to begin with. These included two of Marcel Carné's poetic realist masterpieces: Hôtel du Nord (1938) and Le Jour se lève (1939), the latter of which marked the beginning of his lifelong friendship with Jean Gabin. At the start of WWII, Blier enlisted in the French infantry but was captured and interned in a prisoner-of-war camp in Austria, where he lost 27 pounds in weight. On his return to France in 1941, he quickly resumed his acting career, playing small but noticeable supporting roles in films by such distinguished directors as Christian-Jaque, Marcel L'Herbier and Claude-Autant Lara. Blier's flair for playing pathetic, unattractive losers was revealed in H.G. Clouzot's Quai des Orfèvres (1947) and then exploited to the full by Yves Allégret in Dédée d'Anvers (1948) and Manèges (1950). As well as serious dramatic roles, Blier excelled at comedy, particularly in parody gangster roles exemplified by those he played in Georges Lautner's Les Tontons flingueurs (1963) and Yves Robert's Le Grand blond avec une chaussure noire (1972). In 1979, he starred alongside Gérard Depardieu in Buffet froid, directed by his son Bertrand, who was now an established filmmaker. In the 1980s, his career waning, Bernard Blier devoted most of his time to Italian cinema. In March 1989, a few weeks before he died from the cancer illness he had been suffering from for four years, Blier was awarded an honorary César for his life's work.
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Filmography

Key: a = actor

Double crime sur la ligne Maginot (1937) [a]

Gribouille (1937) [a]

L'Habit vert (1937) [a]

La Dame de Malacca (1937) [a]

Le Messager (1937) [a]

Trois... six... neuf (1937) [a]

Accord final (1938) [a]

Altitude 3,200 (1938) [a]

Entrée des artistes (1938) [a]

Grisou (1938) [a]

Hôtel du Nord (1938) [a]

Le Ruisseau (1938) [a]

Place de la Concorde (1938) [a]

Le Jour se lève (1939) [a]

Quartier latin (1939) [a]

Nuit de décembre (1940) [a]

L'Assassinat du Père Noël (1941) [a]

L'Enfer des anges (1941) [a]

Le Pavillon brûle (1941) [a]

Premier bal (1941) [a]

Caprices (1942) [a]

La Femme que j'ai le plus aimée (1942) [a]

La Nuit fantastique (1942) [a]

La Symphonie fantastique (1942) [a]

Le Journal tombe à cinq heures (1942) [a]

Le Mariage de Chiffon (1942) [a]

Romance à trois (1942) [a]

Domino (1943) [a]

Je suis avec toi (1943) [a]

Marie-Martine (1943) [a]

Les Petites du quai aux fleurs (1944) [a]

Carmen (1945) [a]

Farandole (1945) [a]

Seul dans la nuit (1945) [a]

Messieurs Ludovic (1946) [a]

Monsieur Grégoire s'évade (1946) [a]

Le Café du cadran (1947) [a]

Quai des Orfèvres (1947) [a]

D'homme à hommes (1948) [a]

Dédée d'Anvers (1948) [a]

Les Casse-pieds (1948) [a]

L'École buissonnière (1949) [a]

Monseigneur (1949) [a]

Retour à la vie (1949) [a]

L'Invité du mardi (1950) [a]

La Souricière (1950) [a]

Les Anciens de Saint-Loup (1950) [a]

Manèges (1950) [a]

Souvenirs perdus (1950) [a]

La Maison Bonnadieu (1951) [a]

Sans laisser d'adresse (1951) [a]

Agence matrimoniale (1952) [a]

Je l'ai été trois fois (1952) [a]

Suivez cet homme (1953) [a]

Avant le déluge (1954) [a]

Scènes de ménage (1954) [a]

Secrets d'alcove (1954) [a]

Le Dossier noir (1955) [a]

Les Hussards (1955) [a]

Prigionieri del male (1955) [a]

Crime et châtiment (1956) [a]

L'Homme à l'imperméable (1957) [a]

Quand la femme s'en mêle (1957) [a]

Retour de manivelle (1957) [a]

En légitime défense (1958) [a]

L'École des cocottes (1958) [a]

La Bonne tisane (1958) [a]

La Chatte (1958) [a]

Le Joueur (1958) [a]

Les Grandes familles (1958) [a]

Les Misérables (1958) [a]

Sans famille (1958) [a]

Archimède, le clochard (1959) [a]

La Grande guerra (1959) [a]

Le Secret du Chevalier d'Éon (1959) [a]

Les Yeux de l'amour (1959) [a]

Marie-Octobre (1959) [a]

Arrêtez les tambours (1960) [a]

Crimen (1960) [a]

Il Gobbo (1960) [a]

L'Ennemi dans l'ombre (1960) [a]

La Famille Fenouillard (1960) [a]

Marche ou crève (1960) [a]

I briganti italiani (1961) [a]

Le Cave se rebiffe (1961) [a]

Le Monocle noir (1961) [a]

Le Président (1961) [a]

Vive Henri IV... vive l'amour! (1961) [a]

En plein cirage (1962) [a]

Le Septième juré (1962) [a]

Les Petits matins (1962) [a]

Pourquoi Paris? (1962) [a]

Germinal (1963) [a]

I compagni (1963) [a]

Il magnifico avventuriero (1963) [a]

Les Saintes nitouches (1963) [a]

Les Tontons flingueurs (1963) [a]

Mathias Sandorf (1963) [a]

Alta infedelta (1964) [a]

Cent mille dollars au soleil (1964) [a]

Il Magnifico cornuto (1964) [a]

La Bonne soupe (1964) [a]

La Chance et l'amour (1964) [a]

La Chasse à l'homme (1964) [a]

Les Barbouzes (1964) [a]

Casanova '70 (1965) [a]

Les Bons vivants (1965) [a]

Quand passent les faisans (1965) [a]

Bel Ami 2000 oder Wie verführt man einen Playboy? (1966) [a]

Delitto quasi perfetto (1966) [a]

Du mou dans la gâchette (1966) [a]

Duello nel mondo (1966) [a]

Le Grand restaurant (1966) [a]

Una questione d'onore (1966) [a]

Le Fou du labo 4 (1967) [a]

Lo Straniero (1967) [a]

Peau d'espion (1967) [a]

Si j'étais un espion (1967) [a]

Un idiot à Paris (1967) [a]

Caroline chérie (1968) [a]

Coplan sauve sa peau (1968) [a]

Faut pas prendre les enfants du bon Dieu pour des canards sauvages (1968) [a]

Riusciranno i nostri eroi a ritrovare l'amico misteriosamente scomparso in Africa? (1968) [a]

Appelez-moi Mathilde (1969) [a]

Mon oncle Benjamin (1969) [a]

Quarta parete (1969) [a]

Elle boit pas, elle fume pas, elle drague pas, mais... elle cause! (1970) [a]

Le Cri du cormoran, le soir au-dessus des jonques (1970) [a]

Le Distrait (1970) [a]

Homo Eroticus (1971) [a]

Il furto è l'anima del commercio!? (1971) [a]

Jo (1971) [a]

Laisse aller, c'est une valse (1971) [a]

To Catch a Spy (1971) [a]

Boccaccio (1972) [a]

Elle cause plus, elle flingue (1972) [a]

Le Grand blond avec une chaussure noire (1972) [a]

Le Tueur (1972) [a]

Tout le monde il est beau, tout le monde il est gentil (1972) [a]

Je sais rien, mais je dirai tout (1973) [a]

Moi y'en a vouloir des sous (1973) [a]

Bons baisers... à lundi (1974) [a]

Il Piatto piange (1974) [a]

La Main à couper (1974) [a]

Les Chinois à Paris (1974) [a]

Par le sang des autres (1974) [a]

Processo per direttissima (1974) [a]

Amici miei (1975) [a]

C'est dur pour tout le monde (1975) [a]

C'est pas parce qu'on a rien à dire qu'il faut fermer sa gueule... (1975) [a]

Ce cher Victor (1975) [a]

Le Faux-cul (1975) [a]

Calmos (1976) [a]

Le Corps de mon ennemi (1976) [a]

Nuit d'or (1976) [a]

Buffet froid (1979) [a]

Hypochondriac (1979) [a]

Série noire (1979) [a]

Voltati Eugenio (1980) [a]

Il turno (1981) [a]

Passione d'amore (1981) [a]

Pétrole! Pétrole! (1981) [a]

La Fuite en avant (1983) [a]

Amici miei - Atto III° (1985) [a]

Ça n'arrive qu'à moi (1985) [a]

Le Due vite di Mattia Pascal (1985) [a]

Scemo di guerra (1985) [a]

Je hais les acteurs (1986) [a]

Speriamo che sia femmina (1986) [a]

Twist again à Moscou (1986) [a]

I picari (1987) [a]

Ada dans la jungle (1988) [a]

Les Possédés (1988) [a]

Mangeclous (1988) [a]

Una Botta di vita (1988) [a]

Kinski Paganini (1989) [a]

Seobe (1989) [a]



The history of French cinema
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The best French Films of the 1920s
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The very best French thrillers
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The very best sci-fi movies
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Science-fiction came into its own in B-movies of the 1950s, but it remains a respected and popular genre, bursting into the mainstream in the late 1970s.
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At the time of the Nazi Occupation of France during WWII, the German-run company Continental produced some of the finest films made in France in the 1940s.

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