The actor Pierre Vernier, member of the “Bande du Conservatoire” with Belmondo, died at the age of 93

A prolific actor, he had appeared in around sixty films, including many popular successes alongside his friend Bébel.

The actor Pierre Vernier, member of the “Conservatory Band” in the 1950s with Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean-Pierre Marielle or Jean Rochefort, died Wednesday October 9 at the age of 93. A prolific actor, he had appeared in around sixty films, including a good number of popular successes alongside his friend Bébel, such as The professional (1981) or Itinerary of a spoiled child (1988, in the role of a priest). “Be careful, I also exist without him!” he had fun saying in 2001 about the one he considered to be “professional conscience embodied”.

Pierre Vernier was one of those actors whose name is not necessarily known to the general public, but whose face and appearance, tall gentlemanly stature, dreamy face and brown lock on the forehead, are familiar to him.

With Françoise Fabian, he was one of the last surviving members of the “Conservatory Band”essentially formed by students from the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art in Paris in the early 1950s. Besides Belmondo, its core, it included Jean Rochefort, Claude Rich, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Bruno Cremer and Annie Girardot.

Born Pierre Louis Rayer in Saint-Jean d’Angely in Charente and died in Vic-Fezensac, in Gers, Pierre Vernier had worked with great film directors, including Henri Verneuil and Joseph Losey (in Mr Klein with Alain Delon in 1976). A horse lover, like Jean Rochefort, Pierre Vernier was very active on television. In 2008, he played the role of General De Gaulle, for which he received several acting awards.

On the small screen, it’s the soap opera Rocambole and the role of the eponymous vigilante who made him famous in 1964. In the theater, Pierre Vernier had played under the direction of Raymond Rouleau, Georges Wilson, Jean-Louis Barrault and Roger Planchon.

Knight of the National Order of Merit, Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters, Pierre Vernier was very involved until the end of his life in the associative and charitable sector, underlined those around him.