Background
He was born in Saint-Brieuc, Côtes-d"Armor, son of French actress Mado Maurin.
He was born in Saint-Brieuc, Côtes-d"Armor, son of French actress Mado Maurin.
Dewaere attended the Cours Hattemer, a private school.
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. 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).
Despite Dewaere"s obvious talent for comedy, he was often successfully cast as a fragile, neurotic individual. Shortly after the release of Paradis Pour Tous (1982), a black comedy where his character committed suicide, the actor shot himself in his house, possibly due to drug abuse
The actor was the subject of the French documentary Patrick Dewaere, which was shown at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival.
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.
Foreign eleven years Dewaere was married to French actress Sotha.
They had one daughter. He committed suicide in 1982 by shooting himself with a rifle in Paris. He was 35 years old.