Patrick Dewaere

Patrick Dewaere (26 January 1947 – 16 July 1982) was a French film actor. He was born in Saint-Brieuc, Côtes-d'Armor, son of French actress Mado Maurin. His five siblings, Jean-Pierre Maurin (1941–1996), Yves-Marie Maurin (1944–2009), Dominique Maurin (b. 1949), Jean-Francois Maurin (b. 1957) and Marie-Veronique Maurin (b. 1960), all became actors, with varying degrees of success.

Dewaere attended the Cours Hattemer, a private school.

One of his first TV appearances was in 1961, when he was 14 years old. He appeared in a video for the song "Nuits d'Espagne" by Dalida. Later, he was a promising and popular French actor in the late 1960s and 1970s. In 1968, he joined Café de la Gare, the troupe of performers which also included such future stars as Gérard Depardieu and Miou-Miou. After initially appearing under the pseudonym Patrick Maurin, he finally opted for Dewaere, which was his grandmother's maiden name. Onscreen from 1971 in various bit parts, Dewaere made the breakthrough with his first major role in Bertrand Blier's anarchic comedy Les Valseuses (1974) where he and Depardieu starred as two young delinquents. He teamed up again with Depardieu in Blier's Oscar-winning comedy Préparez vos mouchoirs (1978). In 1981, he played in controversial film Beau-père, in which his character engaged in an incestuous relationship with his seductive underage adolescent step-daughter.

Despite Dewaere's obvious talent for comedy, he was often successfully cast as a fragile, neurotic individual.

The actor was the subject of the French documentary Patrick Dewaere, which was shown at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival.

For eleven years Dewaere was married to French actress Sotha. In the early 1970s, he became the companion of French actress Miou-Miou, until they separated in 1976. They had one daughter. Shortly after the release of Paradis Pour Tous (1982), a black comedy where his character committed suicide, the actor shot himself in his house in Paris; he was 35 years old.

• The Patrick Dewaere Award was established in France in 1983.
• Raphaël, a French singer, wrote a song in his honour, Chanson pour Patrick Dewaere, which appeared on Raphaël's 2005 album Caravane.