Jean Servais
Jean Aimé Antoine Servais (born September 24, 1910 in Antwerp , † February 17, 1976 in Paris ) was a Belgian actor. In addition to his successful stage career, he appeared in over 80 film and television roles. He became known to a wide audience through Jules Dassin's feature film Rififi (1955).
Life
Training and theater work
Jean Servais was born in 1910 (according to other information 1912) as the son of the artillery officer Henri Servais and his wife Marguerite (birth name Courduan). He attended the Collège Saint-Michel in Brussels and came into contact with theater while studying law in the Belgian capital. He then switched to acting and studied at the Conservatoire d'Art Dramatique in Brussels . Later he made the acquaintance of Raymond Rouleau . He accepted him into the theater ensemble of the Théâtre du Marais in Brussels, where Servais was first successful in Ferdinand Bruckner's play Illness of Youth .
In 1930 Servais, Rouleau and Madeleine Ozeray performed successfully in Paris with the Bruckner drama . Two years later, the Belgian moved to the French capital, where numerous main stage roles in various theaters were to follow. Servais joined the well-known theater group around Jean-Louis Barrault and Madeleine Renaud and stayed on stage throughout his life. He has successfully played roles in both classical and contemporary fabrics, including works by Jean Anouilh (The Trial or the Punished Love , 1950), Paul Claudel (The Exchange , 1951; Mittagswende , 1952), Jean Giraudoux (Pour Lucrèce , 1953) , Ben Jonson ( Volpone , 1955), Anton Chekhov ( The Cherry Orchard , 1954) and Peter Weiss ( Marat / Sade , 1966). In 1969 he was seen with Madeleine Renaud in the French-language production of Marguerite Duras ' The English Beloved at London's Royal Court Theater .
Film career
Parallel to his work at the theater, Servais made his debut in 1932 with a supporting role in Jack Forrester's feature film Criminel (1932). Further appearances in French feature film productions followed, including the leading role of Frédéric Chopin in La chanson de l'adieu or the part of Marius in Raymond Bernard's Hugo adaptation The Damned (both 1934). His bass voice and his restrained playing were mainly used in dramas. After the Second World War , he found himself back on the big screen in 1948 with Marcel Cravennes Danse de mort with Erich von Stroheim . However, the appearance of the Belgian actor had changed a lot. His furrowed face, his sad eyes and the tired smile radiated a melancholy intelligence from now on. His deep, melodious grave voice also contributed to this, which was to bring him various speaking roles in documentaries and feature films, for example in Alain Resnais ' Gauguin (1950) and Jacques Demys Eselshaut (1970). The brooding, tormenting demeanor that he displayed throughout his life predestined Servais for disillusioned, confused characters, including those of the weird, eerie guest in Yves Allégret's drama A Pretty Little Beach (1949) with Gérard Philipe and Madeleine Robinson .
He had his international breakthrough as a film actor in 1955 with the lead role in Jules Dassin's Rififi . In the feature film, Servais slipped into the role of a jewel robber who, just released from prison, is preparing a robbery on a jewelry store. The realistic crime thriller with its detailed break-in sequence is considered a masterpiece and "grandfather" of all caper movies . Servais was awarded the French Étoile de Cristal for Best Actor in 1955 for the role of the hardened, methodical gang boss Tony . The actor worked with Dassin one more time in 1956, on the award-winning drama The Man Who Must Die , in which he is seen as the Greek Orthodox priest who rejects the survivors of a Turkish massacre. After the role as the ruthless Latin American governor in Luis Buñuel's melodrama For him I sell myself (1959), he still worked as a film actor until the 1970s, but he could no longer build on the success of Rififi . In the 1960s he took on small character roles in international productions such as the Oscar- winning US war film The Longest Day (1962) or Philippe de Broca's successful comedy Adventure in Rio (1964). He then ended his film career with appearances in French and Italian B-movies .
Jean Servais was married to the French actress Dominique Blanchar , the daughter of the famous actor Pierre Blanchar . The marriage ended in divorce. In 1976 Servais died of heart failure during an operation at the age of 65 .
Filmography (selection)
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Awards
- 1955: Étoile de Cristal for Rififi ( best actor )
Web links
- Biography at cinema.aliceadsl.fr (French)
- Jean Servais in the All Movie Guide (English)
- Jean Servais in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b cf. Jean Servais . In: Who's who in France 1959-1960. Dictionnaire biographique paraissant tous les deux ans (France - Communautés et Français de l'Étranger) . J. Lafitte, Paris 1959 (accessed September 27, 2009 via WBIS Online )
- ↑ cf. Jean Servais . In: Dictionnaire biographique français contemporain: 1954-1955. - 2. éd. Pharos, Paris 1954–1955 (accessed on September 27, 2009 via WBIS Online)
- ↑ cf. Jean Servais . In: Denoël, Thierry: Le nouveau dictionnaire des Belges . Le Cri, Brussels 1992 (accessed on September 27, 2009 via WBIS Online)
- ↑ cf. Russell Taylor, John: Mystery play provides enthralling theater Royal Court Theater: L'Amante Anglaise by Marguerite Duras . In: The Times , September 26, 1969, ed. 57675, p. 8
- ↑ cf. Jean Servais . In: Jean-Loup Passek (Ed.): Dictionnaire du cinéma français . Larousse, Paris 1987, ISBN 2-03-720031-5 , pp. 383-384
- ↑ a b c cf. Portrait at cineartistes.com (French; accessed September 26, 2009)
- ↑ cf. Jean Servais . In: Ephraim Katz: The Macmillan international film encyclopedia . Macmillan, New York 1994, ISBN 0-333-61601-4 , p. 1235
- ↑ cf. Biography in the All Movie Guide (accessed September 27, 2009)
- ↑ cf. Rififi . In: The large TV feature film film lexicon (CD-ROM). Directmedia Publ., 2006, ISBN 978-3-89853-036-1
- ↑ cf. Biography in the All Movie Guide (accessed September 27, 2009)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Servais, Jean |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Servais, Jean Aimé Antoine (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Belgian actor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 24, 1910 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Antwerp |
| DATE OF DEATH | 17th February 1976 |
| Place of death | Paris |