Jean Richard is the famous commissioner Maigret and he would have celebrated his 100th birthday on April 18th. In Niort, an exhibition is dedicated to this poitevin actor born in Bessines, who had also created a circus that bears his name.
Become famous thanks to his character of Maigret, the French actor Jean Richard from Deux-Sèvres was born near Niort in the small town of Bessines on April 18, 1921.
The actor would have been a hundred this year. Daniel Taillé, a film buff from Niort, wanted to honor the man with the pipe through an exhibition.
It is also not his first attempt. Already in 2007 he invited the son of the actor, Jean-Pierre Richard, to pay tribute to the child of the country. “We had organized three days of festivities in the commune of Frontenay-Rohan-Rohan with, in particular, an exhibition, conference and film screening” remembers Daniel Taillé.
–
But this year, health crisis requires, impossible to exhibit in the room of the district. Far from being discouraged, this enthusiast found a plan B. It was in front of his house, on the fence of the entrance wall, that he set up his exhibition. “Until April 15 I exhibit panels on the actor of the series Maigret and then until April 22 on the circus he founded ” explains Daniel Taillé.
Maigret in Niort and Fontenay
Since April 7, various panels, placed along the fence of the property, tell the story of the actor and his interpretation of the famous and charismatic Commissioner Maigret.
We find in turn, Annick Tanguy, his wife in life and on screen on a few series. On other panels, actors who have interpreted the deputy commissioner as François Cadet. And among the other actors playing in the series, young actors little known at the time such as Jean-Pierre Bacri or Gérard Depardieu.
Other paintings highlight series filmed in the surrounding area. One titled “the cadaver inspector” was quite simply shot in Niort in 1968 and another titled “Maigret is afraid” produced in 1975 in the town of Fontenay-le-Comte in Vendée.
There is material since the hero of Georges Simenon is played 88 times by the actor from Niort.
–
From the menagerie to the circus
Jean Richard, who was born and lived until he was six in Bessines, moved to Niort with his parents, where he attended Saint-Florent primary school and then Fontanes college. His father was a breeder of horses but also of Poitou donkeys, so young Jean grew up in the countryside surrounded by many animals.
Besides cinema, theater and television, he is therefore naturally passionate about animals. Over the years, his menagerie became so important, the actor decided in 1957 to create a circus that would bear his name, then in 1975 he bought the Pinder circus to form the Pinder Jean-Richard circus.
–
An elephant parade in Niort
In 1983 with his circus the actor comes to parade in Niort with his elephants. Photos visible on the Niort exhibition. “At the time it was a former classmate of the actor, sitting at the town hall, who had succeeded in bringing the elephant parade of Jean Richard in the streets of Niort”Explains Daniel Taillé. The cinephile, inexhaustible on the subject of Maigret, hopes to be able to exhibit in the neighborhood room and surroundings as soon as the sanitary measures are lifted.
In the meantime, if you pass in the Goise district, stop for a moment at number 5 rue des Tilleuls. Weather permitting, the exhibition on Jean Richard will remain in place until April 22.
–
–
