So on stage he appeared in all kinds of plays from the very highest intellectual dramas

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So on stage he appeared in all kinds of plays, from the very highest intellectual dramas to the lightest of satirical intrigues. He was the living embodiment of what the French call une b? de sc? – a sort of wild animal who could only be tamed in public by appearing on the boards. The gift of being all to all men (and women, of course) made him one of France's most beloved performers. He never tired of entertaining his public even when, as happened three or four times, he was in a long run of over 1,000 performances. He said, When you get to about the 720th, you naturally don't feel as fresh as at the 30th. That's when you've got to find it again, every night, that first-night freshness. And I admit that by the 900th I used sometimes to overdo things a bit, to get that freshness, without letting the audience know what I was doing, and found we were all enjoying ourselves.His versatility was amazing.

He could illuminate difficult roles and transform a nondescript drama by sheer force of talent, technique and charm. His career started early, while he was still a pupil at the Lyc?Janson-de-Sully, and started studying acting at the Cours Ren?imon He got an audition with no less than the great Louis Jouvet. In 1995, P?er published his second book, Lettres ?n jeune com?en ("Letters to a Young Comedian"), where he describes how, at the age of 16, he presented a scene from Moli?'s Les Fourberies de Scapin, to which Jouvet reacted with: "If Moli? had heard you, he'd have turned in his grave!" And P?er boldly replied: "In that case, he must now be right side up after your performance yesterday in L'Ecole des femmes."Only sheer adolescent charm could have got that bit of cheek across. Jouvet became his model, though naturally he had refused to take him into his class, but he did not oppose his entry to the Conservatoire, where he started appearing in small parts. Though he was by no means possessed of classic good looks, his fresh-faced, impudent adolescent charm attracted favourable notice when he appeared in Claude-Andr?uget's delightful comedy of young love Les Jours heureux, a success that kicked off his career with 500 performances and assured his acting future.His other great idol was Jean-Paul Sartre, who asked him to play in Les Mains sales in 1948, followed in the same year by Sartre's Le Diable et le Bon Dieu, which was revived in 1968 and 1970 on the Th?re du Chaillot's vast stage. Later stage triumphs in Sartre included his appearance in Les S?estr?d'Altona ("The Condemned of Altona"), which he also directed, in 1965.With the development of a wonderful organ of a voice, his range was limitless. He could endow even the most repulsive characters with a fascinating appeal, like his Salieri in Peter Shaffer's Amadeus opposite Roman Polanski in the title role (1982), or the sad hero of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (1988) which had audiences in tears every night.There were many links between P?er's stage work and his appearances in films, television dramas and on radio programmes, where his magnificent voice could be heard in all its intimate velvet best.

After he had played Tartuffe at Strasbourg, G?rd Depardieu, a close friend, made a filmed version, with himself in the leading role. One of P?er's early film successes was opposite Giuletta Masina in Fedrico Fellini's Le Notte di Cabiria (Nights of Cabiria) in 1957. He had appeared in Jean Cocteau's Orph?(1949) and in its 1959 sequel, Le Testament d'Orph?P?er played in a number of excellent period films on television, such as Mazarin in 1978. In the cinema, he appeared in an adaptation of Zola's L'Assommoir under the title Gervaise (1956) and in a biography of the poet-criminal Lacenaire in 1990.