Pierre Renoir was born as the eldest son of the painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir and his wife Aline Victorine Charigot. His younger brother, born in 1894, would later become a film director, Jean Renoir . Pierre Renoir's godfather was the painter Gustave Caillebotte , who was a friend of his father .
Even in his youth, Pierre Renoir was interested in acting. He attended the Conservatoire national supérieur d'art dramatique and won the prix de tragédie drama award in 1907 . Although he initially showed little interest in silent films, his future wife, the actress Véra Sergine , convinced him to take on smaller film roles from 1910. The connection with Véra Sergine resulted in the son Claude Renoir in 1914 , who later worked successfully as a cameraman.
After Vera Sergine's death, he married the actress Marie-Louise Iribe , with whom he founded the film production company "Les artistes réunis". After the divorce, he married his third wife, Lisa, who was also an actress.
Pierre Renoir suffered severe wounds in World War I , from which he recovered slowly. At the beginning of the 1920s he took up his work as an actor again. From 1928 he was part of his friend Louis Jouvet's ensemble .
Jean Renoir convinced his brother Pierre of the possibilities of the sound film in the early 1930s. In 1932, Pierre Renoir played one of the first Maigret actors in La nuit du carrefour based on the literary model by Georges Simenon . The film was directed by the brother Jean Renoir. The brothers later worked together on the films La fille de l'eau , The Marseillaise (La marseillaise) and Madame Bovary .
In 1935 he played an officer in La Bandera so prominently that he was often committed to this role in later films. One of his most famous film roles is the portrayal of Jericho in the 1945 film Children of Olympus, directed by Marcel Carné . When he ended his career in 1951, he could look back on numerous stage roles and participation in 65 films.
↑ Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Aline Charigot . In: Tatjana Kuschtewskaja : Secrets of beautiful women. Famous artists and their models . Grupello Verlag, Düsseldorf 2018, ISBN 978-3-89978-301-8 , pp. 82–91.
