Alain Renoir
Alain Renoir (October 31, 1921 – December 12, 2008) was a literature professor and a French-American writer, son of filmmaker Jean Renoir and actress Catherine Hessling, and grandson of impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
Renoir was born in Cagnes-sur-Mer, the only son of Jean Renoir. As a teenager Renoir worked in a few of his fathers films, including House Party (1936), as assistant cameraman on The Human Beast (1938) and The Rules of the Game (1939). In 1942 he joined his father in the United States, enlisted in the American Army and served in combat in the Pacific.
After the war, he studied English literature and comparative literature and became a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He was considered a leading scholar of medieval English literature and published books on Beowulf and John Lydgate. He had three children, John, Peter and Anne.