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The most popular French actor of the pre-war era, Jean Gabin
was born in May 1904 in Paris as Jean-Alexis Gabin Moncorge to an unknown
actor and unsuccessful chanteuse who died early leaving her small children
to their father’s care. Being the youngest of seven sisters and brothers,
Jean had his father working hard training him for an acting career, already
proud of his son’s future success and feeling himself the founder of a
new dynasty of actors.
Quick tempered and an abrasive character, Jean had trouble
dealing both with his pestering teachers and his father, Ferdinand, who
was such a bore and that was driving him absolutely crazy. By 14 he was
openly venting his anger and irritation on anyone who came his way at school
and at home. Trying to win the grim ‘teen over to his side, Jean’s father
was even taking him to the local bars. All those attempts failed through.
Jean just wouldn’t chum in, he often missed his classes and badmouthed
his father’s fellow actors. He thought he had had enough of his dad’s troubles
who was grabbing at the most insignificant roles only to be able to get
up on stage and be in the focus of the people’s attention.
By 18 Jean had already had his share of hauling coal sacks,
melting steel and working up calluses. Appreciating his son’s workaholic
attitude, Ferdinand finally managed to bully Jean into signing up with
the Folies-Bergere company. Even though he was now doing what his father
wanted, Jean saw little difference between acting and hauling heavy coal
sacks. He was working like a horse and waiting a raise – always an
unbearable, glum and grunting bear – the way he always was…
After a stint with the Navy, Jean resumed his acting career,
not because he was madly in love with theater, but rather because it provided
him with a steady job he could live on. Singing with the traditional
huskiness like many other singers in his day, Jean became very popular;
especially among women. The advent of the Thirties saw him trying his hand
as a movie actor even though he despised cinema even more than he did theater.
Cheap operetta directors were lining up to sign him on. A few years and
11 cheapo films later Jean met Jean Renoir, the director who made him the
Gabin we all know so well, the man-mountain, a strong and patient loner.
The new image came pretty easy because Gabin was essentially playing himself.
Before long he was working with the best directors around spawning
a raft of film classics many of which are still remembered today.
After the French defeat in World War Two Gabin took up residence in Hollywood
hoping to repeat his success in America. He later joined the Navy and was
decorated many times over for selflessly fighting the enemy. Here in America
he met Marlene Dietrich with whom he would have a longtime affair that
was as fantastic as it was doomed…
During the 1950s and ‘60s Jean Gabin was the reigning
king of French cinema teaming up with such would be superstars as Lino
Ventura, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon. Retaining his signature
image of a tough anti-hero, set in his beliefs, feared and respected by
all, Jean Gabin appeared in a series of psychological thrillers and crime
dramas, his acting always so natural and easy, a fascinating combination
of an amateur actor and the virtuosity of a great artist.
People said about his characters that each moment seeing
them they immediately knew whether it was cold outside, whether they were
starved, had driven a car or just walked in, that Gabin could read a phone
directory as if it were some edge of the seat suspense story. One of a
kind and inimitable, he created an image that was all his own, his signature,
tight-lipped smile, a pair of bright eyes, always so calm, a hat a-la Gabin
and even his very back which, like those of other real great actors, was
also part of his acting.
Each film he played in was like a Trojan horse: it all happened
before anyone had time to make out what was going on. He was more than
just a great actor. There was some inherent magnitude inside him that made
him the way he was. Those ever-experimenting directors kept trying to pit
him, already advanced in years, against up and coming young talents such
as Brigitte Bardot and Jean-Paul Belmondo. Each time they faced off on
the set threatened to degenerate into a fight but it never did, Bardot’s
energetic femininity and Belmondo’s rebellious nature both appealing to
Gabin. Despite their obvious age difference, the three immediately understood
and appreciated one another because, even though made of different materials,
they were of the same kind all…
Jean Gabin left behind a film legacy of exceptional variety
and quality. He was as comfortable in the role of a fearless hero of a
criminal sage, as he was as that of a revolutionary epic or a ballad about
wartime camaraderie.
Gabin’s colleagues compared his death to the lightning that
suddenly strikes an old but still firm tree they had long since grown used
to see as a symbol of eternity...
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