Pierre Brice facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Pierre Brice
Pierre Brice, in 2004
Born	(1929-02-06)6 February 1929 Brest, France
Died	6 June 2015(2015-06-06) (aged 86) Paris, France
Occupation	Actor
Nationality	French
Period	1962–1997
Genre	Western

Pierre-Louis Le Bris (born February 6, 1929 – died June 6, 2015), known as Pierre Brice, was a French actor. He was most famous for playing the role of Winnetou, a fictional Apache chief, in German movies based on the novels by Karl May.

Life and Acting Career

Pierre Brice was born in Brest, a city in Brittany, France. When he was 19, he joined the French Army. He fought in the First Indochina War, a conflict in Southeast Asia. During a patrol, a mine exploded near him, but he was lucky and not seriously hurt. He was also part of the Commandos Marine, which are special forces in the French Navy. Later, he served as a paratrooper during the Algerian War.

Becoming Winnetou

From 1962 to 1968, Pierre Brice starred in eleven West German Western films. These movies were based on books by the German author Karl May. In these films, Brice played the main character, Winnetou. Winnetou was a brave Native American chief of the Mescalero Apache tribe. He acted alongside other famous actors like Lex Barker, Stewart Granger, and Rod Cameron.

After the movies, Pierre Brice continued to play Winnetou on stage. He performed at the Karl May Festspiele in Elspe from 1977 to 1980 and again from 1982 to 1986. He also performed at the Karl May Festival in Bad Segeberg open-air theatre, Germany, from 1988 to 1991. He even directed some of these open-air plays until 1999. The theatre in Bad Segeberg is specially made for plays based on Karl May's stories.

Other Roles and TV Shows

Besides his famous theatre work, Pierre Brice also appeared in many TV series. These included Ein Schloß am Wörthersee (which means A Castle by the Wörthersee) and Die Hütte am See (Lakeview Cottage). In 1979, he played Winnetou again in a 14-part TV series called Mein Freund Winnetou (My friend Winnetou – Winnetou le Mescalero). This series was not based on Karl May's original books.

In 1997, he was in a two-part TV mini-series called Winnetous Rückkehr [de] (The Return of Winnetou). Fans were surprised by this show because Winnetou had died in an earlier movie, Winnetou III. This story also did not come from Karl May's writings.

Pierre Brice tried to play different kinds of characters to move away from his Winnetou image. In 1976, he starred in the TV series Star Maidens. He also appeared in several movies for the big screen. He played Zorro in the Italian film Zorro contro Maciste (1963). He worked with Terence Hill (who was known as Mario Girotti at the time) in Shots in Threequarter Time (1965). He also reunited with Lex Barker in a non-Karl May film called The Hell of Manitoba (1965) and in the movie Killer's Carnival (1966).

Pierre Brice passed away on June 6, 2015, in a Paris hospital. He died from pneumonia.

Singing Career

Like his co-star Lex Barker, Pierre Brice also tried singing. He worked with German composer Martin Boettcher. He even released several singles and CDs. Most of his songs were in German. Since Brice did not understand German very well when he recorded them, he had to sing the words by sound.

• PIERRE BRICE: Ich steh' allein / Ribanna – DECCA D 19 557 (mono)
• PIERRE BRICE: Wunderschön / Keiner weiß den Tag – Decca, D 19 560
• PIERRE BRICE: Winnetou, Du warst mein Freund / Meine roten Brüder – Barclay
• PIERRE BRICE: Du fehlst mir / Der große Traum – CBS
• Winnetou du warst mein Freund – 1996, sampler CD, Bear Family Records
  • This CD includes the songs listed above, as well as some songs by Lex Barker.

Partial Filmography

See also

In Spanish: Pierre Brice para niños