by Hal Erickson
biography
Trained for the stage, Francois Perier began playing tiny roles in French films while still in his teens. Perier truly hit his stride in the years following World War II. His most famous screen role was Heurtebise in Jean Cocteau's Orphee (1949), a characterization he repeated ten years later (and none the worse for wear) in the same director's Le Testament D'Orphee (1959). Francois Perier's other roles of note included the bookish Oscar in Fellini's Nights of Cabiria (1957) and the Public Prosecutor in Costa-Gavras' Z (1969).
