Daniel Gélin | WatchedThis
Daniel Gélin
Acting
Biography
Daniel Yves Alfred Gélin (19 May 1921 – 29 November 2002) was a French actor. Gélin was born in Angers, Maine-et-Loire, the son of Yvonne (née Le Méner) and Alfred Ernest Joseph Gélin. When he was ten, his family moved to Saint-Malo where Daniel went to college until he was expelled for 'uncouthness'. His father then found him a job in a shop that sold cans of salted cod. It was seeing the shooting of Marc Allégret's film Entrée des artistes that triggered his desire to go to Paris to train to be an actor. He trained at the Cours Simon in Paris before entering the Conservatoire national d'art dramatique. There he met Louis Jouvet and embarked on a theatrical career. He made his first film appearance in 1940 in Miquette and for several years was an extra or played small roles in French films. He appeared with Jean Gabin and Marlene Dietrich in Martin Roumagnac (1946). He won his first leading role in Rendez-vous de juillet (1949). From that time, he went on to appear in more than 150 films, including Max Ophüls' films La Ronde (1950) and Le Plaisir (1952), Jacques Becker's Édouard et Caroline (1951), Sacha Guitry's films Si Versailles m'était conté (Royal Affairs in Versailles) (1954) and Napoléon (1955), Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), Jean Cocteau's Le Testament d'Orphée (1960), Le souffle au cœur (Murmur of the Heart) (1971), and La Nuit de Varennes (That Night in Varennes) (1982). He also wrote and directed one film, The Long Teeth, in 1952. Gélin was a leading man in French cinema during the 1950s, but his career declined with the coming of the New Wave. He worked in theater for several years, but later found new success on screen as a character actor. He appeared extensively in French films and television productions from the 1970s until his death, often playing cynical characters or grumpy old men. In 1946, Gélin married actress Danièle Delorme with whom he had a son, actor, director and producer Xavier Gélin. They divorced in 1954. While still married to Delorme, he had an affair with 17 year old model Marie Christine Schneider that produced a daughter, Maria Schneider. Due to his status as a married man, Gélin could not recognize Maria as his daughter. He visited the child several times but eventually severed his relationship with her mother. Maria Schneider and Daniel Gélin reconnected when she was sixteen and came to visit him. They remained in contact, although their relationship was irregular. Gélin was married to model Sylvie Hirsch from 1954 until their divorce in 1968. This marriage produced three children, Pascal (who died aged one year), Fiona , and Manuel, the latter two also becoming actors. In 1973, he remarried to Lydie Zaks with whom he had a daughter, Laura. Gélin died in Paris on 29 November 2002 of kidney failure. Source: Article "Daniel Gélin" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Filmography Movies
Acting
The Man Who Knew Too Much
An American doctor and his wife, a former singing star, witness a murder while vacationing in Morocco, and are drawn into a twisting plot of international intrigue when their young son is kidnapped.
Trop c'est trop
Philippe, Didier, Georges and Edina were born on the same day. The three boys have always been in love with Edina, but she's always put them off. They set off in search of her and find her posing for a photographer. Seeing them, she flees and dies in the process. By mutual agreement, the three boys commit suicide to join her.
Season of Peace in Paris
A Yugoslavian man meets a woman in Paris, where he has come to do some research, and their mutual attraction leads to a liaison and shared adventures, not many good.
Life Is a Long Quiet River
Two babies are switched at birth. When the mistake is discovered 12 years later, it leads to complications in the lives of both families. One family is affluent, with dutiful and (apparently) contented children. The other family is poor, with rambunctious (even delinquent) children, often hungry, but with lots of laughter in the house.
The Sleeping Car Murders
Six people travel by overnight train from Marseilles to Paris. When they arrive, one of them, a young woman, is found dead in a sleeping berth. The police, led by Inspector Grazzi, investigate the other five passengers, suspecting that one among them was responsible. However, as the investigation is stepped up, the others start turning up dead. It's up to the remaining two to solve the case, lest they become the next victims.
Is Paris Burning?
Near the end of World War II, Gen. Dietrich von Choltitz receives orders to burn down Paris if it becomes clear the Allies are going to invade, or if he cannot maintain control of the city. After much contemplation Choltitz decides to ignore his orders, enraging the Germans and giving hope to various resistance factions that the city will be liberated. Choltitz, along with Swedish diplomat Raoul Nordling, helps a resistance leader organize his forces.
Port of Desire
Pierre is in Hamburg on a merchant ship with his friends Georges and Jean-Marie. While they are just looking for a good time in the twenty-four hours they have to waste in the city, Pierre is seized by the memory of a young German girl, Maria, whom he had known and probably loved when he was a prisoner of war in the bombed-out port of Hamburg. He abandons his companions in search of her, but is unable to trace her, her house having been destroyed and the search services having no record of her.
Mister Frost
Frost is arrested and committed for murder after he is apprehended burying his victims in the garden. However, even while under psychiatric care and tight hospital security, it becomes obvious that Mr. Frost is not all he seems to be.
We Will All Meet in Paradise
Having fortuitously discovered a photograph in which Marthe embraces someone unknown, Étienne Dorsay becomes jealous and imagines various stratagems to identify the lover. In the meantime, he and his friends acquire a weekend house for a very low price.
That Night of Varennes
During the French Revolution, a surprising company shares a coach, trying to catch up something - the time itself, perhaps.
Production
Les Dents longues
A young, talented and ambitious journalist, Louis heads off to try his luck in Paris. He's spotted by Walter, editor-in-chief for a major daily newspaper, who takes to him and furthers his career. What he doesn't realise is that Louis is ready to betray anyone to achieve his ends...
Les Dents longues
A young, talented and ambitious journalist, Louis heads off to try his luck in Paris. He's spotted by Walter, editor-in-chief for a major daily newspaper, who takes to him and furthers his career. What he doesn't realise is that Louis is ready to betray anyone to achieve his ends...
Gallery
