Richard Bohringer

Richard Bohringer
Richard Bohringer
	Richard Bohringer in March 2013
Born	16 January 1942 (age 82); Moulins, France
Citizenship	French, Senegalese
Occupation(s)	Actor, singer, author, film director, screenwriter
Years active	Late 1960s–present
Website	richardbohringer.com

Richard Bohringer (French pronunciation: [ʁiʃaʁ boʁɛ̃ʒe])^[2] is a French actor, singer, writer, and film director. He is the father of actresses Romane Bohringer and Lou Bohringer [fr].

Early life

Bohringer was born in Moulins, Allier, France, to a French mother, Huguette Foucault^[3] and a German father. ^{[citation needed]} His parents met during World War II, making him a child of war.

At his birth, his parents left him with his maternal grandmother who lived in an HLM in Deuil-La Barre [fr], his mother leaving to live in Germany. His father, dispatched to the Russian front, was taken prisoner for five years. Despite these difficulties, Bohringer describes his childhood with his grandmother as a happy one.^[4] During his life, he was able to see his father only three times.^[5]

He made his stage debut near the end of the 1960s. His first play, Les Girafes, was produced by Claude Lelouch. He entered the world of film with his first feature, Gérard Brach's La Maison, in 1970.

Career

In 1972, Richard Bohringer landed a significant role in L'Italien des Roses [fr]. It took until the beginning of the 1980s, however, for the actor, already in his forties, to truly make an impact, becoming one of the most notable French actors of this period. Beginning in 1981 with the film Diva by Jean-Jacques Beineix, he followed with numerous other roles, winning two César Awards for L'Addition [fr] (1984) and The Grand Highway (1987).

Other notable performances include his work in Luc Besson's Subway (1985) and Gérard Jugnot's Une époque formidable... (1991). He also became a favored actor for Jean-Loup Hubert, playing the flighty husband in J'ai épousé une ombre [fr] (1983), and a collaborator with Jean-Pierre Mocky and his friend Bernard Giraudeau. In 1992, Bohringer and his daughter, Romane, were brought together on-screen by Claude Miller for The Accompanist.

In the 1990s, he became the presenter for Mission Appolo, a French-language variety show on Antenne 2, followed by the film Tango (1993), after which he worked more sparingly. Bohringer would then turn again to television with the series Un homme en colère [fr] (1997–2002).

Well before Bohringer began writing novels, he also attempted to write poetry set to music, himself a fan of slam poetry. He released a series of such albums between 1980 and 2002.

In 2010, at The European Theatre [fr] in Paris, France, he staged a one-man show adapted from his book Traîne pas sous la pluie [fr]. This began a tour of more than two years, with Bohringer regaling the public with stories of alcohol, travel, Africa, women, and more. In July 2011, he performed the show during The "Off" Festival of Avignon.

In January 2013, he created the play J'avais un beau ballon rouge [fr], where he shared the stage with his daughter Romane for the first time. The play went on to great success on tour, and in Paris, at the Théâtre du Rond-Point.

A lover of literature, in April 2017, he read from the texts of Jack London and writer and war correspondent Olivier Weber during the opening night of festival of Literature and Journalism in Metz.^[6]

In 2018, he guest-starred in the television series À votre service [fr].

In 2023, his daughter Romane put him onstage at the Théâtre de l'Atelier in Quinze rounds, a solo performance derived from his work of the same title.

Awards and recognition

Bohringer won the César Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1985,^[7]^[8] and the César Award for Best Actor in 1988.^[9]^[10]^[11]

He was the special guest at the 25th edition of the Festival Polar de Cognac in 2020.^[12]

Selected filmography

Year	Title	Role	Director
1977	Animal	An assistant of Sergio	Claude Zidi
1980	The Last Metro	a Gestapo officer	François Truffaut
	Inspector Blunder	fingerprint analyst	Claude Zidi
	La Boum	a friend of François	Claude Pinoteau
1981	Diva	Gorodish	Jean-Jacques Beineix
1981	Les Uns et les Autres	Richard	Claude Lelouch
1982	Le Grand Pardon [fr]	Le Sacristain	Alexandre Arcady
1984	L'Addition [fr]	Albert Lorca	Denis Amar [fr]
1985	Death in a French Garden	Daniel Forest	Michel Deville
1985	Subway	the florist	Luc Besson
1986	Kamikaze	Romain Pascot	Didier Grousset
1987	The Grand Highway	Pelo	Jean-Loup Hubert
	Agent trouble	Alex	Jean-Pierre Mocky
	Flag [fr]	Inspecteur Simon	Jacques Santi
1988	Door on the Left as You Leave the Elevator	Boris	Édouard Molinaro
1989	The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover	Richard Boarst	Peter Greenaway
1990	Dames galantes [fr]	Brantôme	Jean-Charles Tacchella
1992	Confessions d'un Barjo	Charles	Jérôme Boivin
1992	The Accompanist	Chares Brice	Claude Miller
1993	Tango	Vincent Baraduc	Patrice Leconte
1994	The Heart's Cry	Paulo	Idrissa Ouedraogo
1997	La Vérité si je mens !	Victor Benzakhem	Thomas Gilou
1997	Wild Animals	the boss	Kim Ki-duk
1999	Méditerranées [fr]	Ramirez	Philippe Bérenger [fr]
2001	The Cat's Meow	the film director	Peter Bogdanovich
2003	Crime Spree	Laurent Bastaldi	Brad Mirman
2003	The Overeater	Émile Lachaume	Thierry Binisti
2006	A City Is Beautiful at Night	Richard	Richard Bohringer
2008	Admiral	General Janin	Andreï Kravtchouk
2015	By the Sea	Patrice	Angelina Jolie Pitt

References

^ "Extrait de naissance n° 17/1942". Les gens du cinema (in French).
^ Pronunciation in French transcribed according to IPA standard. Listen on Forvo.
^ Who's Who in France: dictionnaire biographique (in French). Éditions Jacques Lafitte. 1992.
^ Interview with Journal de 20 heures (France 2) on 1 May 2016
^ Paris Match number 1868, 15 March 1985, page 53, section « Mes Gens » by Philippe Bouvard:
Je l'ai vu trois fois seulement dans ma vie. Cela n'a pas été très loin. Il parle allemand et pas moi.
I saw him only three times during my life. We didn't get very far. He spoke German and I didn't.
^ Bitzer, Michel (7 April 2017). "Jack London ouvre la voie pour un trentième rugissant" [Jack London Leads the Way for a Roaring Thirtieth]. Le Républicain lorrain (in French).
^ Bourdain, G. S. (19 February 1988). "New Face:; France's Softhearted Tough Guy: Richard Bohringer". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
^ Oscherwitz, Dayna; Higgins, MaryEllen (2 September 2009). The A to Z of French Cinema. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-7038-3.
^ "French actor Richard Bohringer holds up his Cesar Award as he walks..." Getty Images. 28 May 2016. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
^ "Rouans. 32 ans après le Grand chemin, Richard Bohringer revient dans la commune". nantes.maville.com (in French). Retrieved 15 April 2020.
^ Média, Prisma. "Richard Bohringer – La biographie de Richard Bohringer avec Voici.fr". Voici.fr (in French). Retrieved 15 April 2020.
^ Bec, Bernard (9 August 2021). "A Brief History of Cognac's POLAR Festival". CrimeReads. Retrieved 22 May 2024.