Pierre Tchernia was born Pierre Tcherniakowski on January 29, 1928 in Paris. In France known as "Magic" Tchernia and Monsieur Cinema, he is a cinema and television producer, screenwriter, presenter, animator and actor. He was part of the creation of the first televised news in France in 1949 and was an early French news presenter. In 1955 he became a producer of animation (with a heavy influence from the early animation of Walt Disney). For many years he hosted a television game show of movie trivia, Monsieur Cinéma. He has also been host or presenter for various French talk, variety, quiz and music shows over the years. Tchernia was the regular French commentator in the Eurovision Song Contest on 14 occasions from 1958 until 1974. On July 14, 2011, he became Commandeur of the Legion of Honor. A good friend of René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo, the creators of Asterix, he has narrated many of the Asterix films in the original French, and written the screenplay for 4 of them.