Pierre Fresnay

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Pierre Fresnay 1939

Pierre Fresnay (born April 4, 1897 in Ermont , † January 9, 1975 in Neuilly-sur-Seine , Hauts-de-Seine ; actually Pierre Jules Louis Laudenbach ) was a French theater and film actor.

life and work

Laudenbach was encouraged by his uncle, the stage actor Claude Garry , to pursue a career in theater and film. At the age of 14 he made his debut on stage for the first time under the pseudonym Pierre Vernet, and in 1915 he became a member of the ensemble of the French National Theater of the Comédie-Française , of which he was a member until 1926. At the age of 18 he made his comrade debut in Henri Pouctal's France d'abord (1915), but at the time he did not succeed in gaining a foothold in the film business, so he dedicated himself to the theater.

In the 1920s he became a sought-after stage actor who occasionally appeared in silent films . This changed fundamentally in the 1930s with the advent of talkies. At the age of 34, Fresnay played the eponymous hero in Marcel Pagnol's Marius (1931). This was his first leading role and also the start of a series of French films such as Fanny (1932), César (1936) and The Great Illusion (1937), which made him very popular and secured him a position in French film. In 1934 he played alongside Edna Best and Leslie Banks for the first time in an international film, in Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much .

During the German occupation of France, Fresnay continued to work as an actor for the film company Continental , which was under German management at the time. Films like You were Six (1941), The Raven (1943) and The Journey into Forgetting (1944) were made. After the war he was imprisoned for six weeks; his reputation began to decline. Although he continued to take on film roles, mostly in supporting roles, he was no longer able to build on the success of bygone times. He made his last feature film at the beginning of the 1960s with The sky is already sold out . He later concentrated on theater work, interrupting for a few television productions in the 1970s.

Pierre Fresnay was married three times; first marriage to Rachel Berendt, then to the actresses Berthe Bovy and Yvonne Printemps . He died at the age of 77 in the American hospital in Paris in Neuilly-sur-Seine.

Filmography (selection)

  • 1932: Fanny
  • 1934: The Man Who Know Too Much
  • 1936: César
  • 1937: The Puritan (Le puritain)
  • 1937: The great illusion (La grande illusion)
  • 1937: Mademoiselle Docteur
  • 1938: The big decision (Alerte en méditerranée)
  • 1938: Three waltzes (Les trois valses)
  • 1941: You were six! (Le dernier de six)
  • 1942: The murderer lives at number 21 (L'assassin habite au 21)
  • 1942: The Devil's Hand (La main du diable)
  • 1943: The Raven (Le corbeau)
  • 1945: The Road to Hell (La fille du diable)
  • 1947: The lost happiness (Les condamnés)
  • 1947: Monsieur Vincent
  • 1949: Barry - The Hero of St. Bernhard (Barry)
  • 1949: The Parisian Waltz (La valse de Paris)
  • 1950: God needs people (Dieu a besoin des hommes)
  • 1951: Chief Physician Dr. Delius (Un grand patron)
  • 1951: Monsieur Fabre
  • 1952: It's midnight, Dr. Schweitzer (Il est minuit, Dr. Schweitzer)
  • 1954: The Renegade (Le défroqué)
  • 1954: The refugees (Les évadés)
  • 1955: Aristocrats (Les aristocrates)
  • 1956: The Man with the Golden Key (L'homme aux clefs d'or)
  • 1957: The Merciless (Les fanatiques)
  • 1959: The Just or The Ballad of the White Waistcoat (Les affreux)
  • 1960: The House of 1000 Windows (La millième fenêtre)
  • 1960: Heaven is already sold out (Les vieux de la vieille)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Le Petit Futé Immobilier Est et Nord Parisiens , p.248 by Dominique Auzias, Mauad Salignat, Collectif ,, Julie Bagros, Aurélie Bru
  2. ↑ cf. Film Spiegel No. 8, 1987 page 15
personal data
SURNAME Fresnay, Pierre
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pierre Jules Louis Laudenbach (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French theater and film actor
DATE OF BIRTH April 4, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Ermont
DATE OF DEATH January 9, 1975
Place of death Neuilly-sur-Seine , Hauts-de-Seine department