Jean Rochefort

Born: April 29 1930
Where: Dinan, France

Rochefort has been a fixture of French cinema for more than forty years in a career that has included international hits such as Ridicule and The Hairdresser's Husband.

Deciding to pursue acting in his youth, Rochefort studied drama at the Paris Conservatory in the late '40s, at the same time as Jean-Paul Belmondo.

After military service briefly interrupted his career, Rochefort returned to Paris and began performing in cabaret and plays in the mid-'50s and moved to films in the late '50s and early '60s.

Specialising in crowd-pleasing genre movies he scored hits in Cartouche, Symphonie Pour un Massacre and Two Weeks in September.

By the early 1970s, he was increasingly known as a comedy star in moves like The Tall Blond Man but managed to branch out into Luis Bunuel's black comedy The Phantom of Liberty.

Sticking to home grown fare including The Clockmaker and Pardon Mon Affaire he made rare forays into international cinema including Who Is Killing The Great Chefs of Europe?

In the late 1980s, he hooked up with French director Patrice Leconte for Tandem and they went on to have success with the Hairdresser's Husband and Ridicule.

Rochefort also appeared in Robert Altman's Pret A Porter and was awarded an honorary Cesar (French Oscar) for his career achievement in 1999.

He starred in Terry Gilliam's ill-fated biopic of Don Quixote, which was never finished although the chaotic behind-the-scenes machinations turned up in the documentary Lost in La Mancha.

Recently, he appeared in Leconte's L'Homme Du Train and has been working on Le Grande Apartement.