Clavier, Christian

(1952- )

   Actor, producer, and screenwriter. Christian Clavier attended the lycée Pasteur de Neuilly with colleagues who would form the café-théâtre group, the Troupe du Splendid, including Michel Blanc, Gérard Jugnot, and Thierry Lhermitte. They were later joined by Josiane Balasko, Dominique Lavanant, Bruno Moynot, and Marie-Anne Chazel, whom Clavier eventually married. The group performed in the comedy and standup on the Parisian theater circuit, and many of them eventually went into film. Clavier made his film debut in Jacques Doillon, Alain Resnais, and Jean Rouche's L'An '01 (1973). He went on to appear in Bertrand Tavernier's Que la fête commence (1974), Jacques Besnard's C'est parce qu'on n'a rien à dire qu'il faut fermer sa guele (1974), Gérard Pirès's Attention les yeux (1975), and Maurice Dugowson's F. comme Fairbanks (1976).

   Clavier landed his first major role alongside Lhermitte in Pierre Lary's Le Diable dans la boîte (1977). He also acted in Vous n'aurez pas L'Alsace et Lorraine (1977), a film directed by one of France's best-known comedians, Coluche. He played significant roles in Patrice Leconte's popular comedies Les Bronzés (1978) and Les Bronzés font du ski (1979). Leconte, Clavier, and members of the Splendid Troupe cowrote the scripts for these films. He followed these performances with leading roles in François Leterrier's Je vais craquer (1980) and Les Babas cool (1981). He also cowrote and starred in the play and film adaptation of Jean-Marie Poiré's Le Père Noël est une ordure (1982). Clavier would work with Poiré as a writer and actor on several films, among them Papy fait de la résistance (1983), Twist again à Moscou (1986), Mes meilleurs copains (1988), and Opération corned-beef (1991), where he starred with Jean Reno, an actor with whom he worked frequently. He was also paired with Gérard Depardieu in Poiré's Les Anges gardiens (1995).

   With Poiré, Clavier cowrote the hugely popular film Les Visiteurs (1993), for which he received César nominations for Best Screen-play and Best Actor. He also cowrote and starred in its sequel, Les Couloirs du temps, les visiteurs 2 (1998). He subsequently starred in the less successful American version of Les Visiteurs, Jean-Marie Gaubert's Just Visiting (2000). He also worked with director Gérard Oury in La Soif de l'or (1993) and played Astérix, the most famous and beloved of all French cartoon characters, in Claude Zidi's Astérix et Obélix contre César (1999), and in Alain Chabat's Astérix et Obélix: mission Cléopâtre (2002). He played leading roles in his brother Stéphane Clavier's Lovely Rita Sainte Patronne des cas désespérés (2003), as well as in Hervé Palud's Albert est méchant (2004), Alain Berberien's L'Enquête corse (2004), Vincent de Brus's L'Antidote (2005), and Leconte's Les Bronzés 3: amis pour la vie (2005). An actor best known for his comic performances, Clavier has, at times, been compared to the late Louis de Funès.