Pierre Fresnay , of his true name Pierre Jules Louis Laudenbach , actor French, born the April 4th 1897 with Paris, deceased the January 9th 1975 at the American hospital of Paris, Neuilly-sur-Seine.

An actor with “diction incisor”

Wire of Jean Henri Laudenbach, teacher, and of Desired Claire Dietz, Pierre Fresnay goes up on scene for the first time at fourteen years. Thanks to his maternal uncle Claude Garry, ex-boarder of the Comédie-Française and actor in vogue of the time, he plays a small role in the Brush , with the Réjane Theater. It is on this occasion that it chooses its first name of scene, Pierre Vernet. In 1914, it makes its entry with the Conservatoire national of music and declamation, in the class of Paul Mounet and Georges Berr. One year later, it is engaged with the Comédie-Française. Since 1915, it takes down a first great role with the theater in the Play of the love and the chance . The same year, it begins with the silent film with France initially , of Henri Pouctal.

Pierre Fresnay passes then to speaking and interprets its first great role in 1931 in Marius , first shutter of the Marseilles Trilogie of Marcel Pagnol transposed to the screen by Alexandre Korda. he will interpret then Fanny (1932) and César (1936).

In 1934, he plays Armand Duval at the side of Yvonne Printemps, of which he shares the life, in the Lady with the camellias , of Fernand Rivers. Its diction incisor confers to him roles of men of command: officer in the Great Illusion of Jean Renoir (1937) and " Alarm in the Mediterranean " of Joannon, as an inspector in two adaptations of the novels of Stanislas-Andre Steeman, the last of the six (1941) and the assassin lives with the 21 (1942), as marquis in the Aristocrats (1955). One also sees it as a journalist ( the quiet Battle , Pierre Billon, 1934), as a convict in Darling-Bibi , as a man of the church in God needs the men (1949) and Défroqué (1954) and in It is midnight, Doctor Schweitzer (1952) and even in holy Vincent of Paul in Mr Vincent . At the end of its cinematographic career, it will pass to the comic register, in the Dreadful (1959) and in the Old men of the old woman (1960).

In forty years on the film sets, he will have played under the crook of large realizers of the time, of Abel Gance with Marc Allégret, while passing by Alfred Hitchcock (in the first version of the Man who knew of it too ), and Henri-Georges Clouzot. If its role in the Marseilles Trilogie is not a total success (its Marseille accent is sometimes approximate especially in César ), its compositions in the Great Illusion , where it incarnates Boëldieu, a proud and nostalgic aristocrat, and in the Corbel , remained in the memories.

In 1939, it had passed to the realization with the Duel , at the sides of Yvonne Printemps. The couple Spring-Fresnay appears with many recoveries with the screen and triumph in the adaptation of the operetta of Oscar Straus, the Three Waltz (L. Shepherd, Albert Willemetz, 1939). With the Release, the films which it had made under the Occupation on behalf of the German firm Continental, directed by Alfred Greven, and his decoration of the Francisque are worth him a stay of a few weeks in prison, until it is bleached for absence of evidence.

Camping post-war period of the serious characters, even edifying, in films of secondary range, it gives up the cinema at the beginning of the Années 1960, to devote itself exclusively to the theater, that it forever really left. Member of the Comédie-Française which it had left with crash in 1927, Pierre Fresnay illustrated himself on the boards in particular in a miracle , the Bitch with the eyes of woman , Cyrano of Bergerac , Marius , Bloomfield , This old rabble , Jean III , Hermine , the Obsession , Visitation . On television, he will interpret in particular Tête of clock (1969) of Jean-Paul Sassy.

In 1954, it had published its memories, I am actor .

Distinctions

  1. Mostra international of cinematographic art (Venice): Cut Volpi of the best actor for Mr Vincent (1947)

  2. Festival of Karlovy-Vary: Price of interpretation for Mr Fabre (1952)

Two divorces and a partner for the life

  1. Rachel Berendt, young school-fellow with the Academy, actress of the Odéon (marriage in 1917, divorce in 1920)

  2. Berthe Bovy, ten years Belgian actress of origin its elder (marriage in 1923, divorce in 1929)
  3. Companion of Yvonne Spring, 1932 with its death, in 1975

Quotations

In its autobiography ( My Name Escapes Me ), Alec Guinness said that Fresnay was its favorite actor.

Catalog of films

Television

Bonds

  • genealogical Card in the base roglo of INRIA

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