Simon Jacques Eugène was born on 21 July 1926 to engineer Henri Berryer and his wife Marie-Thérèse (née Bonnemazou). At the time of his birth, Henri was an electrician for the director
Abel Gance and
grip on the film
Napoléon.
Childhood The family lived in a small flat in the Rue du Fer-à-Moulin, a cinema district in the
5th arrondissement of Paris, where Simon spent the most part of his earliest years at flats 26, then 28. Very early on, his Russian uncle working at Synchro-Standard took Berryer to see the first talking pictures, which he would remember all his life. (later ''L'Olympic
, then La Fabrique'').
Adolescence At the age of eleven, Barryer founded a comedy group called "Sim-Art". (age fourteen, according to other sources The family moved from Nantes to Ancenis en 1942 and reopened the cinema. Sim continued his studies at the Joubert d'Ancenis lycée and worked as
projectionist in the family business.
Theatre In 1946, the Berryer family stopped working at the Ancenis The Berryer parents returned to Ancenis but Sim – now married – stayed in Rennes as a projectionist at
Le Royal. This venue also staged musical performances, so Sim saw performances from
Edith Piaf,
Yves Montand,
Henri Salvador,
Maurice Chevalier, among others. He practiced his comedy, alone, after the performances. He won a contract as a humorous singer in a ballroom. He was spotted by Étienne Perrin, with whom he performed a comic clown act
Etty et Balta. in a
Guy Lux production. In the 1970s he was part of many televised sketch shows. He also performed comic sketches and songs with humourist
Édouard Caillau on
RTBF's
Chansons à la carte. In France, he was a regular performer in short comic sketches, often in costume, on Guy Lux's programmes. The 1970s saw his best cinema work. Sim also took part in the radio (and later television) programme
Les Grosses Têtes, from its start in 1977, and was a regular panellist on the television game show ''
L'Académie des neuf''. He took part in directing the television series
Louis la Brocante, in which he played the role of Théodore in many episodes, as well as other roles.
Death Sim died of a
pulmonary embolism on 6 September 2009, aged 83, at the Bonnet community hospital in
Fréjus,
Var His wife Marie-Claude and daughter Laurence were accompanied by many famous performers, including
Victor Lanoux,
Jacques Balutin,
Évelyne Buyle,
Philippe Bouvard and
Pierre Sisser. The celebrant was Father Jérôme Renard. He was cremated at
Vidauban (Var) and his ashes scattered in the crematorium's garden of remembrance. ==Filmography==