Maurice Ronet (13 April, 1927 – 14 March 1983) was the handsome son of professional actors who had established himself as a romantic leading man of the stage and screen, before his role in Louis Malle’s Ascenseur pour L’echafaud (1957), made him a star. His persona – that of an elegant dandy pretending detachment but concealing an ironic sense of pessimism – made him the perfect choice to play the alcoholic writer in Malle’s Le Feu follet (1963). He also acted in four films directed by Claude Chabrol, and twice co-starred with Alain Delon in Rene Clement’s Plein soleil (1960) and Jacques Deray’s La Piscine (1969).