Bernard Blier; 50 Years in French Films

Bernard Blier, the plump and balding French actor who incarnated hapless husbands, conniving cops and heartless hit men over a movie career that spanned 50 years, has died, his son announced Thursday in Paris. He was 73.

Blier, winner of this year’s prestigious Cesar award (France’s equivalent of the Oscar) for a career that included roles in about 150 films, died in suburban Saint-Cloud after what was described only as a long illness.

His best-known movies ranged from Yves Allegret’s “Maneges” (1949) to “Buffet Froid” (1979), directed by his son Bertrand and starring Gerard Depardieu. He also played opposite such greats as Jean Gabin and Simone Signoret, generally as a corpulent, moon-faced sidekick with a caustic sense of humor.

Blier was born in Buenos Aires where his father, a biologist, was on assignment for the Pasteur Institute.

From his first film in 1937, Raymond Rouleau’s “Trois, Six, Neuf,” (“Three, Six, Nine”), followed by six other movies that same year, Blier was a workaholic. His last role was in Moshe Misrahi’s “Mangeclous” in 1988.

“My work is my joie de vivre ,” Blier once said. “Never do I go to the studio like one goes to the office. I hate vacation.”