Trivia

Orson Welles frequently cited him as the greatest film director of all time.

He had extremely long hair as a small child which was not cut at the insistence of his father, Pierre-Auguste Renoir. His hair made him look like a little girl and caused him to be teased mercilessly. Little Jean with his long hair was depicted famously in one of his father's paintings. Jean was greatly relieved to go away for school because he knew they required boys to have short hair and they would cut his.

Son of Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

Although he became an American citizen, he was buried in France following a state funeral.

Was voted the 12th-greatest director of all time by Entertainment Weekly magazine, making him the highest-rated French filmmaker on the list.

Charlie Chaplin named him as "the greatest film director in the world".

He fought in the French army during World War I and was wounded in battle. His wounds never healed properly and he suffered from it for the rest of his life.

He frequently acted in his own movies, earning praise for his performances as lovable bear-like lugs (he even dressed up like a bear in The Rules of the Game (1939)).

Darryl F. Zanuck, Renoir's sometimes producer during Renoir's mixed period making films in Hollywood said "Renoir has plenty of talent, but he's not one of us.".

His father was fifty-three when he was born.

He once said that no other Hollywood director understood people better than Leo McCarey.

He was frequently approached about turning his best-selling novel, "Les Cahiers du Capitain Georges" into a film, but he always refused; nor did he want anyone else to film it.

Brother of Pierre Renoir.

Uncle of Claude Renoir.

Called "the boss" by director Jacques Rivette.

Profiled in "Encyclopedia of French Film Directors" by Philippe Rege (Scarecrow Press).

Friend of Georges Simenon and godfather of his son John Simenon.

Grand-uncle of Sophie Renoir.

Grand-uncle of Alexandre Renoir.

Biography in John Wakeman, editor, "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890-1945," pp. 923-947. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.

Renoir was originally set to direct the Deanna Durbin vehicle "The Amazing Mrs. Holliday," but was replaced by Bruce Manning.

In 1975 Renoir received a lifetime Academy Award for his contribution to the motion picture industry. That same year a retrospective of his work was shown at the National Film Theatre in London.

In 1973 Renoir was preparing a production of his stage play, Carola, with Leslie Caron and Mel Ferrer when he fell ill and was unable to direct. The producer Norman Lloyd, a friend and actor in The Southerner, took over the direction of the play. It was broadcast in the series program Hollywood Television Theater on WNET, Channel 13, New York on February 3, 1973.

Unable to obtain financing for his films and suffering declining health, Renoir spent his last years receiving friends at his home in Beverly Hills, and writing novels and his memoirs.

Several of his ceramics were collected by Albert Barnes, who was a major patron and collector of Renoir's father. These can be found on display beneath Pierre-Auguste Renoir's paintings at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia.

After Germany invaded France in May 1940, Renoir fled to the United States with his second wife Dido Freire.

Father of Alain Renoir.

Ean Renoir died in Beverly Hills, California, on February 12, 1979, of a heart attack. His body was returned to France and buried beside his family in the cemetery at Essoyes, Aube, France.

In 1975, the government of France elevated him to the rank of commander in the Légion d'honneur.

Renoir's memoir, My Life and My Films, was published in 1974. He wrote of the influence exercised by Gabrielle Renard, his nanny and his mother's cousin, with whom he developed a mutual lifelong bond. He concluded his memoirs with the words he had often spoken as a child, "Wait for me, Gabrielle.".

Renoir's last film is Le Petit théâtre de Jean Renoir (The Little Theatre of Jean Renoir), released in 1970.[70] The film is a series of three short films made in a variety of styles. It is, in many ways, one of his most challenging, avant-garde and unconventional works.

He was ranked by the BFI's Sight & Sound poll of critics in 2002 as the fourth greatest director of all time.

Jean Renoir has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6212 Hollywood Blvd.

He received a Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the Royal College of Art in London, 1971.

In 1924, Renoir directed Une Vie Sans Joie or Catherine, the first of his nine silent films, most of which starred his first wife, Catherine Hessling, who was also his father's last model. At this stage, his films did not produce a return. Renoir gradually sold paintings inherited from his father to finance them.