French director and screenwriter whose career stretches between the 1960’s and the 1990’s. As the son of the French actress Renée Saint-Cyr (who later played in 11 of her son's films), he was involved with film from an early age. After World War II, he did military service in the documentary unit. He learned the trade by doing various jobs in film studios and assisting various directors during the 1950’s. He directed his first film La môme aux boutons in 1958. The topic was espionage and crime, which remained a constant focus of his later films. His first successful film was the action comedy The Black Monocle (Le monocle noir, 1961), and he also directed two successful sequels, L'oeil du monocle (1962) and Le monocle rit jaune (1964). He was then noticed by the famous producer Alain Poiré, who gave him the chance to direct the action comedy Crooks in Clover (Les tontons flingueurs, 1963). This film achieved incredible success and became his best known one, with the famous kitchen scene. His assistant screenwriter was Michel Audiard with whom Lautner collaborated a lot. They worked together on the comedy The Great Spy Chase (Les barbouzes, 1964), and he co-directed the omnibus Les bons vivants (1965) with Gilles Grangier. Crime drama Galia (1966) was well received due to excellent acting but also provocative scenes with the lead actress Mireille Darc. He made many other films with her, and since he preferred working with the same crew, he also worked with Lino Ventura, Bernard Blier, Francis Blanche and Jean Lefebvre, actress Miou-Miou, the abovementioned screenwriter Michel Audiard and director of photography Maurice Fellous. In the 1960’s, he was successful with Pasha (La pascha, 1968) starring Jean Gabin. His drama Road to Salina (1970) was filmed on the Canary Islands in Spain and partially in English. Twenty years later he made the not so successful Présumé dangereux (1990), starring Robert Mitchum in a supporting role and in English language. In the 1970’s, he made crime comedies Il était une fois un flic... (1971) and La valise (1973), thriller Icy Breasts (Les seins de glace, 1974) with Alain Delon, comedies Pas de problème! (1975) and On aura tout vu (1976.), crime drama Mort d'un pourri (1977) with Alain Delon and Ornella Muti and the less successful comedy Ils sont fous ces sorciers (1978). With Jean-Paul Belmond he collaborated for the first time on Flic ou voyou (1979), then Le guignolo (1980), The Professional (Le professionnel, 1981), which was one of his most successful films in the 1980’s, and Joyeuses Pâques (1984) and Stranger in the House (L'inconnu dans la maison, 1992), which was his last feature film. In the 1980’s he also made the comedy Attention une femme peut en cacher une autre! (1983), with Miou-Miou in the leading role. His last two films were made for television, and he directed two episodes of a TV series. He died in Paris, after a long battle with pancreas cancer.