Rochefort was born on 29 April 1930 in
Paris, France. Jean Rochefort was not born in
Dinan, but his parents were living there. Rochefort was nineteen years old when he entered the ''Centre d'Art Dramatique de la rue Blanche
. Later he joined the Conservatoire National. After completing his national service in 1953, he worked with the Compagnie Grenier Hussenot'' as a theatre actor for seven years. There he was noted for his ability to play both
drama and
comedy. He then became a television and cinema actor, and also worked as director. After some supporting roles in
Cartouche,
Captain Fracasse and in
Marvelous Angelique, Rochefort played his first big role with
Annie Girardot as his wife and
Claude Jade as his daughter in
Hearth Fires in 1972. In this drama, he starred as a man who leaves his family for ten years before returning. In this film he played at 41 years old a father of adult children (the young Claude Jade was already 23). To appear older, he grew a
moustache, his trademark, which he later removed only once, in 1996 for
Ridicule. Four years after
Hearth Fires he was the leading star of the midlife crisis comedy
Pardon Mon Affaire as a man who risks his married life with
Danièle Delorme for an affair with
Anny Duperey. Thanks to the success of this film, Rochefort became very popular. In 1972, he starred opposite
Pierre Richard as Chief of Counter-Espionage, Louis Toulouse, in the
Yves Robert comedy
Le Grand Blond avec une chaussure noire, a role he reprised in the 1974 sequel
Le Retour du grand blond, also directed by Robert. In 1998, he starred as "
Fernand de Morcerf" opposite
Gerard Depardieu in the mini-series
Le Comte de Monte Cristo. In the eighties, he became the narrator of the French version of
Welcome to Pooh Corner, replacing
Laurie Main. This made him popular with children at the time and Disney hired him to record several audio versions of their classic movies. In the 1990s, he returned to comedy with
Les Grands Ducs where he played alongside two other actors of his generation with a similar career,
Philippe Noiret and
Jean-Pierre Marielle. He was set to play the lead role in
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, after being found as "the perfect Quixote" by director
Terry Gilliam. Rochefort learned to speak English just for the part. Unfortunately, amongst other production problems, he began suffering from a
herniated disc. Unable to film for months, production was cancelled. A documentary,
Lost in La Mancha, was made about the failed production. ==Personal life==