Charles Boyer

All you want to know about Charles Boyer

Charles Boyer

from the film Love Affair (1939)
Born 28 August 1899(1899-08-28)
Figeac, Lot, Midi-Pyrenees, France
Died 26 August 1978 (aged 78)
Phoenix, Arizona,
United States
Years active 1920-1976
Spouse(s) Pat Paterson (1934-1978)

Charles Boyer (28 August 1899 – 26 August 1978) was a four-time Academy Award-nominated French-born actor. Boyer started on the stage, but he found his success in European and Hollywood movies during the 1930s, and continued to act in films, television and theatre over the next several decades. His most famous role was in the 1944 film Gaslight. After moving to the U.S., he became an American citizen. In addition to French and English, he spoke Italian, German, and Spanish.[2]

Contents

Early years

Born in Figeac, Lot, Midi-Pyrenees, France, to Maurice and Louise Boyer, Charles was just a shy, small-town boy who discovered the movies and theater at the age of eleven. Working as a hospital orderly during World War I, Charles Boyer started to perform comic sketches for the soldiers there.[3] Boyer began studies briefly at the Sorbonne, and was waiting for a chance to study acting at the Paris Conservatory.[4] He went to the capital city to finish education but spent most of his time pursuing a theatrical career. In 1920, his quick memory won him a shot at replacing the leading man in a stage production, and he scored an immediate hit. In the 1920s, he was not only played a suave and sophisticated ladies' man on the stage but also appeared in several silent films.[5]

MGM signed him to a contract, and nothing much came of his first Hollywood stay from 1929 to 1931. At first, Boyer did film roles only for the money and found that supporting roles were unsatisfying. However, with the coming of sound, his deep voice made him a romantic star.[6][7]

His first break was a very small role in Jean Harlow's Red-Headed Woman (1932).[8] After starring in a French adaptation of Liliom (1934) directed by Fritz Lang, he began to receive public favor;[9] Boyer landed his first leading Hollywood role at the romantic musical Caravan (1934) with Loretta Young.[10] Claudette Colbert requested him for the psychiatric drama Private Worlds (1935),[11] which was modest success.[12] Nevertheless, when they co-starred again in the Broadway comedy, The Marriage-Go-Round (1958–1960), Boyer said to the producer, “Keep that woman away from me".[13] He loved life in the United States, and went on to play with glamorous leading ladies (including younger Brigitte Bardot and Sophia Loren) of that era.

Stardom

During this period, Boyer had continued making European films, and with Mayerling opposite Danielle Darrieux in 1936 it made him an international star. This was followed by Orage (1938) opposite Michèle Morgan. The offscreen Boyer was bookish and private, far removed from the Hollywood high life. But onscreen he romanced Marlene Dietrich in The Garden of Allah (1936), Jean Arthur in History Is Made at Night (1937), Greta Garbo in Conquest (1937), and Irene Dunne in Love Affair (1939).[14] The Garden of Allah established him as a major actor in the U.S.,[15] which was his first film in Technicolor.

In 1938, he landed his famous role, as Pepe le Moko, the thief on the run, in Algiers an English-language remake of the hit French film Pepe le Moko with Jean Gabin. Although he never invited costar Hedy Lamarr to "Come with me to the Casbah" in the movie, this line was in the movie trailer. The line would stick with him, thanks to generations of impressionists and Looney Tunes.[16][17] Boyer's role as Pepe Le Moko was already world famous when animator Chuck Jones based the character of Pepe le Pew, the romantic skunk introduced in 1945's Odor-able Kitty, on Boyer and his most well-known performance.[18] Boyer's vocal style was also parodied on the Tom and Jerry cartoons, most notably when the Tom character was trying to woo a female cat (like for instance The Zoot Cat).

in All This, and Heaven Too (1940)

Boyer played in three classics of unrequited love: All This, and Heaven Too (1940) with Bette Davis, Hold Back the Dawn (1941) with Olivia de Havilland and Paulette Goddard, and Back Street (1941) with Margaret Sullavan.

He was made a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1942.[19][20]

In contrast to his glamorous image, Boyer began losing his hair early, had a pronounced paunch, and was noticeably shorter than leading ladies like Ingrid Bergman. When Bette Davis first saw him on the set of All This, and Heaven Too, she did not recognize him and tried to have him removed from the set.[21]

In 1943, he was awarded an Honorary Oscar Certificate for "progressive cultural achievement" in establishing the French Research Foundation in Los Angeles as a source of reference (certificate). Boyer never won an Oscar, though he was nominated for Best Actor four times in Conquest (1937), Algiers (1938), Gaslight (1944) and Fanny (1961), the latter also nominating him Laurel Award for Top Male Dramatic Performance.

Charles Boyer is best known for his role in the 1944 film Gaslight in which he tried to convince Ingrid Bergman's character that she was going insane. He became well known for declarations of love in films with greatest co-stars.[22] In the 1940s he was the voice of Capt. Daniel Gregg in Lux Radio Theater's presentation of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.

After World War II

After World War II, he continued the international career in movies and on television, Broadway and the London stage. In 1948, Charles Boyer was made a chevalier of the French Legion of Honor.

When another film with Bergman, Arch of Triumph (1948), failed at the box office, he started looking for character parts. Apart from notable parts such as Max Ophuls' The Earrings of Madame de... (1953), he also moved into television as one of the pioneering producers and stars of Four Star Theatre; Four Star Productions would make him and partners David Niven and Dick Powell rich.[23] In the 1950s Boyer was a guest star on I Love Lucy. He was nominated for the Golden Globe as Best Actor in the 1952 film The Happy Time; and also for the Emmy for Best Continuing Performance by an Actor in a Dramatic Series for his work in Four Star Playhouse (1952–1956).

In 1950, he appeared on the Broadway stage in one of his most notable roles, that of Don Juan, in a dramatic reading of the third act of George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman. This is the act popularly known as Don Juan in Hell. In 1952, he won Broadway's 1951 Special Tony Award for Don Juan in Hell. It was directed by actor Charles Laughton. Laughton co-starred as the Devil, with Cedric Hardwicke as the statue of the military commander slain by Don Juan, and Agnes Moorehead as Dona Anna, the commander's daughter, one of Juan's former conquests. The production was a critical success, and was subsequently recorded complete by Columbia Masterworks, one of the first complete recordings of a non-musical stage production ever made. As of 2006, however, it has never been released on CD. He was also nominated for the Tony Award as Best Actor (Dramatic) in the 1963 Broadway production of Lord Pengo.

Later career

Onscreen, he continued to shine with older roles: in Fanny (1961) starring Leslie Caron; Barefoot in the Park (1967) with Robert Redford and Jane Fonda; and Jean-Paul Belmondo's Stavisky (1974), the latter winning him the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor.[24]

Another notable TV program, The Rogues, starred Boyer with David Niven and Gig Young; the series only lasted through the 1964–1965 season.

His distinguished career lasted longer than other romantic actor, nicknamed him "the last of the cinema's great lovers."[25] He recorded a very dark album called Where Does Love Go? in 1966. The album consisted of famous love songs sung (or rather talked) with Charles Boyer's distinctive deep voice and French accent. The record was reportedly Elvis Presley's favorite album for the last 11 years of his life, the one he most listened to.[26]

His last major film role was that of the High Lama in a poorly received musical version of Lost Horizon (1973), although he also had a notable part as a corrupt city official in the 1969 film version of The Madwoman of Chaillot, featuring Katharine Hepburn. His other movie appearances included: Around the World in 80 Days (1956), How to Steal a Million (1966, featuring Audrey Hepburn), Is Paris Burning? (1966), and, his final film, A Matter of Time (1976), with Ingrid Bergman and Liza Minnelli.

For his contribution to the motion picture and television industries, Charles Boyer has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6300 Hollywood Blvd.

Personal life

Boyer's only marriage was to British actress Pat Paterson whom he met at a dinner party in 1934. The two became engaged after two weeks of courtship and were married after a three month engagement.[27] Later, they would move from Hollywood to Paradise Valley, Arizona.[28] The marriage lasted 44 years.

He also was one of the few close friends of Maurice Chevalier.

On 26 August 1978, two days after his wife died from cancer, and two days before his own 79th birthday, Boyer committed suicide with an overdose of Seconal while at a friend's home in Scottsdale. He was taken to the hospital in Phoenix where he died. He was interred in Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, California, alongside his wife and son Michael Charles Boyer. At the age of 21, Michael had committed suicide by playing Russian roulette with a gun after a breakup with his girlfriend - apparently over a misunderstanding of what she meant by "I'm leaving."

Filmography

Television

References

  1. ^ Charles Boyer at Hollywood.com Retrieved on 2008-09-24.
  2. ^ The Ravin' Maven of Classic Film - Biography Retrieved on 2008-11-10.
  3. ^ TCM Film Guide, p. 29.
  4. ^ Swindell, Larry (1983). Charles Boyer: The Reluctant Lover. Doubleday. 
  5. ^ Charles Boyer - Encyclopaedia Britannica Retrieved on 2008-09-24.
  6. ^ TCM Film Guide, p. 29.
  7. ^ Charles Boyer (1899 - 1978) - Find A Grave Memorial
  8. ^ Charles Boyer @ Classic Movie Favorites - Biography Retrieved on 2008-09-24.
  9. ^ All-Movie Guide: Charles Boyer
  10. ^ All-Movie Guide: Caravan
  11. ^ TCM Film Guide, p. 29.
  12. ^ The Ravin' Maven of Classic Film - Biography Retrieved on 2008-09-24.
  13. ^ Dick, Bernard F. (2008). Claudette Colbert: She Walked in Beauty. University Press of Mississippi. 
  14. ^ TCM Film Guide, p. 29.
  15. ^ All-Movie Guide: Charles Boyer
  16. ^ Boller, Jr., Paul F.; George, John (1989). They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, and Misleading Attributions. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-505541-1. 
  17. ^ TCM Film Guide, p. 29.
  18. ^ TCM Film Guide, p. 31.
  19. ^ Charles Boyer at Classic Movie Stars Retrieved on 2008-09-24.
  20. ^ Vincendeau, Ginette (1999-12-19). "World Cinema: Actors -- Charles Boyer". Encyclopedia of European Cinema. Retrieved on 2008-09-24.
  21. ^ TCM Film Guide, p. 31.
  22. ^ MovieTreasures Retrieved on 2008-09-24.
  23. ^ TCM Film Guide, p. 29.
  24. ^ TCM Film Guide, p. 29.
  25. ^ Charles Boyer - TCM Movie Database
  26. ^ "Clambake - United Artists 1967". For Elvis Fans Only. EPE. Retrieved on 2008-09-24.
  27. ^ TCM Film Guide, p. 31.
  28. ^ Bankruptcy & Debt Information from Doney & Associates - Around Arizona - Celebrity Sightings Retrieved on 2008-09-24.
  • TCM Film Guide The 50 Most Unforgettable Actors of the Studio Era: Leading Men, Chronicle Books, San Francisco, California, 2006.

External links

Sister project Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Charles Boyer
Persondata
NAME Boyer, Charles
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION actor
DATE OF BIRTH 28 August 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Figeac, Lot, Midi-Pyrénées, France
DATE OF DEATH 26 August 1978
PLACE OF DEATH Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Boyer"

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