Cartoonist and illustrator. Born in Paris, France in 1926, to a family of Jewish immigrants from Poland, his parents were Stanisław Simkha Gościnny, a chemical engineer from Warsaw, Poland, and Anna (Hanna) Bereśniak-Gościnna from Chodorków, a small village near Żytomierz in the Second Polish Republic, now Ukraine.  The Gościnnys moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina, two years after René’s birth, because of a chemical engineer post Stanisław had obtained there. With aspirations of being a cartoonist he began work at seventeen years of age at an advertising agency in Argentina. Emigrating to the United States in 1945 and he settled in New York to continue his pursuit of his dream. His time there was difficult. One of the highlights was meeting Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder(who will later go on to found the seminal and iconic “Mad Magazine”) when he was hired on as a cartoonist, in 1949 at the studio they were also working for. They would remain friends all their lives. Rene then became art director at Kunen Publishers where he wrote four books for children. In 1951 he would leave the United States for Europe finding employment with Belgian press agency, World Press at their Brussels branch.  He would meet Albert Uderzo and the course of his life would change. Instead of drawing he began writing, often teaming up with good friend Uderzo creating Jehon Pistolet, Luc Junior and others. The Indian character, Oumpah-Pah blossomed to life under their combined talents. His new found talent for writing enabled him to team up with Morris writing stories for Lucky Luke for the magazine Spirou. His writings would includes Oumpah-pah for Uderzo, Spaghetti for Attanasio, Straponti for Berck, Prudence Petitpas for Marechal, “Modeste et Pompon” for Franquin and many more. In 1956 Rene, Uderzo and Charlier left World Press to form Edipresse/Edifranc which created comic books to be used as advertisements for different products. The formation of this company was only made possible by one Jean Hebrard who provided the money to start their small company. Rene married Gilberte Pollaro-Millo in 1967. In 1968 their daughter Anne was born. By 1968 he left Pilote after nine years of affiliation with the magazine that shot him to fame and fortune. He would continue to write stories for Asterix, Lucky Luke and Zinged as he pursued his own works. He would die at the age of 51 in Paris, France. (bio by: Shock)