Charles Boyer
Encyclopedia
Charles Boyer was a French actor who appeared in more than 80 films between 1920 and 1976. After receiving an education in drama, Boyer started on the stage, but he found success in movies during the 1930s. His memorable performances were among the era's most highly praised romantic dramas, Algiers
(1938) and Love Affair (1939). Another famous role was in the 1944 mystery-thriller Gaslight
. He received four Academy Award nominations for Best Actor.
, Lot, Midi-Pyrénées
, France, to Maurice and Louise Boyer, Charles was a shy, small-town boy who discovered the movies and theatre at the age of eleven. Boyer performed comic sketches for soldiers while working as a hospital orderly during World War I. He began studies briefly at the Sorbonne
, and was waiting for a chance to study acting at the Paris Conservatory. He went to the capital city to finish his education, but spent most of his time pursuing a theatrical career. In 1920, his quick memory won him a chance to replace the leading man in a stage production, and he scored an immediate hit. In the 1920s, he not only played a suave and sophisticated ladies' man on the stage but also appeared in several silent films.
MGM signed Boyer to a contract, and he loved life in the United States, but nothing much came of his first Hollywood stay from 1929 to 1931. At first, he performed 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.
His first break came with a very small role in Jean Harlow
's Red-Headed Woman
(1932). After starring in a French adaptation of Liliom
(1934) directed by Fritz Lang
, he began to receive public favor; Boyer landed his first leading Hollywood role in the romantic musical Caravan
(1934) with Loretta Young
. French expatriate Claudette Colbert
requested him in the psychiatric drama Private Worlds
(1935), which was a modest success.
co-starring Danielle Darrieux
in 1936 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 made audiences swoon as 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). His first Technicolor
film was The Garden of Allah, which established him as a major actor in the U.S.
In 1938, he landed his famous role as Pepe le Moko, the thief on the run in Algiers
, an English-language remake of the classic 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
parodies. 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. Boyer's vocal style was also parodied on the Tom and Jerry cartoons, most notably when Tom was trying to woo a female cat. (See The Zoot Cat
).
Boyer played in three classic films of unrequited love: All This, and Heaven Too (1940), with Bette Davis
; Back Street
(1941), with Margaret Sullavan
; and Hold Back the Dawn
(1941), with Olivia de Havilland
and Paulette Goddard
.
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.
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 winning him a nomination for the Laurel Awards
for Top Male Dramatic Performance.
He also did a well-known turn in the 1944 film Gaslight in which he played a thief/murderer who tries to convince his newlywed wife that she is going insane.
's presentation of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
, played in the film by Rex Harrison
. In 1948, he was made a chevalier of the French Légion d'honneur.
When another film with Bergman, Arch of Triumph
(1948), failed at the box office, he started looking for character parts. Apart from several French films such as Max Ophuls
' The Earrings of Madame de...
(1953, again with Danielle Darrieux) and Nana (1955, opposite Martine Carol
), 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. In 1956, Boyer was a guest star on I Love Lucy
.
On March 17, 1957, he starred in an adaptation for TV of the Pulitzer Prize
-winning play, There Shall Be No Night
, by Robert E. Sherwood
. The performance starred Katharine Cornell
, and was broadcast on NBC
as part of the Hallmark Hall of Fame
. He was nominated for the Golden Globe as Best Actor for the 1952 film The Happy Time
; and also nominated for the Emmy for Best Continuing Performance by an Actor in a Dramatic Series for his work in Four Star Playhouse
(1952–1956).
In 1951, 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, but in 2009 it became available as an MP3 download. Boyer co-starred again with Claudette Colbert in the Broadway comedy The Marriage-Go-Round
(1958–1960), but said to the producer, "Keep that woman away from me". He was also nominated for the Tony Award as Best Actor
(Dramatic) in the 1963 Broadway production of Lord Pengo. Later the same year Boyer performed in Man and Boy
on the London and New York stage.
; Barefoot in the Park
(1967) with Robert Redford
and Jane Fonda
; and the French film Stavisky
(1974, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo
), the latter winning him the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor
, and also received the Special Tribute at Cannes Film Festival
.
Another notable TV series, The Rogues
, starred Boyer with David Niven
and Gig Young
; the show lasted through the 1964–1965 season.
His career lasted longer than other romantic actors, winning him the nickname "the last of the cinema's great lovers." He recorded a very dark album called Where Does Love Go? in 1966. The album consisted of famous love songs sung (or rather spoken) with 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.
Later in life, he turned to character parts in such films as: Around the World in 80 Days
(1956), How to Steal a Million
(1966, featuring Audrey Hepburn
), Is Paris Burning?
(1966), and Casino Royale
(1967). He had a notable part as a corrupt city official in the 1969 film version of The Madwoman of Chaillot
, featuring Katharine Hepburn
. His last major film role in Hollywood was that of the High Lama in a poorly received musical version of Lost Horizon
(1973). A year later, he gave a final outstanding performance in his native language as Baron Raoul in Alain Resnais's Stavisky
(1974)
For his contribution to the motion picture and television industries, Boyer has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
at 6300 Hollywood Blvd.
Interesting piece of trivia: Cyndi Lauper mouthed Marlene Dietrich and Charles Boyer's lines from the 1936 film, The Garden of Allah, in her 1984 video, "Time After Time."
His 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 three months later. Later, they would move from Hollywood to Paradise Valley, Arizona
. The marriage lasted 44 years.
In Hollywood, he also was one of the few close friends of the great French actor/singer Maurice Chevalier
. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1942.
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 (1943–1965). On the night of 10 December 1964, at his own 21st birthday party in his LA home, their son Michael shot himself. The media reported his death as a deliberate suicide although the website for his mother, Pat Peterson, suggests that it was the result of being horribly drunk and playing Russian roulette with a loaded gun.
Algiers (film)
Algiers is a 1938 American drama film directed by John Cromwell and starring Charles Boyer, Sigrid Gurie, and Hedy Lamarr. The Walter Wanger production was a remake of the successful 1937 French film Pépé le Moko, which derived its plot from the Henri La Barthe novel of the same name...
(1938) and Love Affair (1939). Another famous role was in the 1944 mystery-thriller Gaslight
Gaslight (1944 film)
Gaslight is a 1944 mystery-thriller film adapted from Patrick Hamilton's play, Gas Light, performed as Angel Street on Broadway in 1941. It was the second version to be filmed; the first, released in the United Kingdom, had been made a mere four years earlier...
. He received four Academy Award nominations for Best Actor.
Early years
Born in FigeacFigeac
Figeac is a commune in the Lot department in south-western France.Figeac is a sub-prefecture of the department.-History:Figeac is on the via Podiensis, a major hiking medieval pilgrimage trail which is part of the Way of St. James...
, Lot, Midi-Pyrénées
Midi-Pyrénées
Midi-Pyrénées is the largest region of metropolitan France by area, larger than the Netherlands or Denmark.Midi-Pyrénées has no historical or geographical unity...
, France, to Maurice and Louise Boyer, Charles was a shy, small-town boy who discovered the movies and theatre at the age of eleven. Boyer performed comic sketches for soldiers while working as a hospital orderly during World War I. He began studies briefly at the Sorbonne
Sorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...
, and was waiting for a chance to study acting at the Paris Conservatory. He went to the capital city to finish his education, but spent most of his time pursuing a theatrical career. In 1920, his quick memory won him a chance to replace the leading man in a stage production, and he scored an immediate hit. In the 1920s, he not only played a suave and sophisticated ladies' man on the stage but also appeared in several silent films.
MGM signed Boyer to a contract, and he loved life in the United States, but nothing much came of his first Hollywood stay from 1929 to 1931. At first, he performed 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.
His first break came with a very small role in Jean Harlow
Jean Harlow
Jean Harlow was an American film actress and sex symbol of the 1930s. Known as the "Blonde Bombshell" and the "Platinum Blonde" , Harlow was ranked as one of the greatest movie stars of all time by the American Film Institute...
's Red-Headed Woman
Red-Headed Woman
Red-Headed Woman is a 1932 Pre-Code comedy film, produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, based on a novel by Katherine Brush, and with a screenplay by Anita Loos. It was directed by Jack Conway, and stars Jean Harlow as a woman who uses sex to advance her social position...
(1932). After starring in a French adaptation of Liliom
Liliom (1934 film)
Liliom is a 1934 French fantasy film directed by Fritz Lang based on the Hungarian stage play of the same name by Ferenc Molnár. The film stars Charles Boyer as Liliom , a carousel barker who is fired his job after falling in love with the chambermaid Julie...
(1934) directed by Fritz Lang
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang was an Austrian-American filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer and actor. One of the best known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute...
, he began to receive public favor; Boyer landed his first leading Hollywood role in the romantic musical Caravan
Caravan (1934 film)
Caravan is a film made by Fox Film Corporation, directed by Erik Charell. The film stars Charles Boyer, Loretta Young and Jean Parker. Fox also produced a French language version of this film, Caravane starring Boyer, Annabella, and Conchita Montenegro.-Cast:*Charles Boyer as Latzi*Loretta...
(1934) with Loretta Young
Loretta Young
Loretta Young was an American actress. Starting as a child actress, she had a long and varied career in film from 1917 to 1953...
. French expatriate Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert was a French-born American-based actress of stage and film.Born in Paris, France and raised in New York City, Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the 1920s, progressing to film with the advent of talking pictures...
requested him in the psychiatric drama Private Worlds
Private Worlds
Private Worlds is a drama film which tells the story of the staff and patients at a mental hospital, and the chief of the hospital who has problems dealing with a female psychiatrist. It stars Claudette Colbert, Charles Boyer, Joel McCrea, Joan Bennett, and Helen Vinson.The movie was written by...
(1935), which was a modest success.
Stardom
Until the early 1930s, Boyer mainly continued making French films, and MayerlingMayerling (1936 film)
Mayerling is a 1936 French historical drama film directed by Anatole Litvak and produced by Seymour Nebenzal from a screenplay by Marcel Achard, Joseph Kessel and Irma von Cube, based on the novel Idol's End by Claude Anet. The film stars Charles Boyer and Danielle Darrieux with Jean-Louis...
co-starring Danielle Darrieux
Danielle Darrieux
Danielle Yvonne Marie Antoinette Darrieux is a French actress and singer, who has appeared in more than 110 films since 1931. She is one of France's great movie stars and her eight-decade career is among the longest in film history....
in 1936 made him an international star. This was followed by Orage
Orage (film)
Orage is a 1938 French drama film directed by Marc Allégret. The screenplay was written by Marcel Achard and H.G. Lustig, based on play "Le venin" by Henri Bernstein...
(1938), opposite Michèle Morgan
Michèle Morgan
Michèle Morgan is a French film actress, who was a leading lady for three decades.- Career :Morgan was born Simone Renée Roussel in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, a western suburb of Paris....
. The offscreen Boyer was bookish and private, far removed from the Hollywood high life. But onscreen he made audiences swoon as he romanced Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...
in The Garden of Allah (1936), Jean Arthur
Jean Arthur
Jean Arthur was an American actress and a major film star of the 1930s and 1940s. She remains arguably the epitome of the female screwball comedy actress. As James Harvey wrote in his recounting of the era, "No one was more closely identified with the screwball comedy than Jean Arthur...
in History Is Made at Night
History Is Made at Night (1937 film)
History Is Made at Night is a 1937 romantic drama with elements of comedy and spectacle.It deals with a love triangle among a possessive shipping magnate, his beautiful wife, and a French headwaiter, with a spectacular ocean liner as a backdrop....
(1937), Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo , born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson, was a Swedish film actress. Garbo was an international star and icon during Hollywood's silent and classic periods. Many of Garbo's films were sensational hits, and all but three were profitable...
in Conquest (1937), and Irene Dunne
Irene Dunne
Irene Dunne was an American film actress and singer of the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s. Dunne was nominated five times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for her performances in Cimarron , Theodora Goes Wild , The Awful Truth , Love Affair and I Remember Mama...
in Love Affair (1939). His first Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
film was The Garden of Allah, which established him as a major actor in the U.S.
In 1938, he landed his famous role as Pepe le Moko, the thief on the run in Algiers
Algiers (film)
Algiers is a 1938 American drama film directed by John Cromwell and starring Charles Boyer, Sigrid Gurie, and Hedy Lamarr. The Walter Wanger production was a remake of the successful 1937 French film Pépé le Moko, which derived its plot from the Henri La Barthe novel of the same name...
, an English-language remake of the classic French film Pepe le Moko
Pépé le Moko
Pépé le Moko is a 1937 French film directed by Julien Duvivier and starring Jean Gabin. It depicts an infamous gangster, Pépé le Moko who tries to escape the police by hiding in the casbah of the city of Algiers...
with Jean Gabin
Jean Gabin
-Biography:Born Jean-Alexis Moncorgé in Paris, he grew up in the village of Mériel in the Seine-et-Oise département, about 22 mi north of Paris. The son of cabaret entertainers, he attended the Lycée Janson de Sailly...
. Although he never invited costar Hedy Lamarr
Hedy Lamarr
Hedy Lamarr was an Austrian-American actress celebrated for her great beauty who was a major contract star of MGM's "Golden Age".Lamarr also co-invented – with composer George Antheil – an early technique for spread spectrum communications and frequency hopping, necessary to wireless...
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
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
parodies. Boyer's role as Pepe Le Moko was already world famous when animator Chuck Jones
Chuck Jones
Charles Martin "Chuck" Jones was an American animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer, and director of animated films, most memorably of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts for the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio...
based the character of Pepe le Pew
Pepé Le Pew
Pepé Le Pew is a fictional character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons, first introduced in 1945. A French skunk that always strolls around in Paris in the springtime, when everyone's thoughts are of "love", Pepé is constantly seeking "l'amour" of his own...
, the romantic skunk introduced in 1945's Odor-able Kitty, on Boyer and his most well-known performance. Boyer's vocal style was also parodied on the Tom and Jerry cartoons, most notably when Tom was trying to woo a female cat. (See The Zoot Cat
The Zoot Cat
The Zoot Cat is a 1944 one-reel animated cartoon and is the 13th Tom and Jerry short. It was produced in Technicolor and released to theatres on February 26, 1944 by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer...
).
Boyer played in three classic films of unrequited love: All This, and Heaven Too (1940), with Bette Davis
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
; Back Street
Back Street (1941 film)
Back Street is a 1941 drama film made by Universal Pictures, directed by Robert Stevenson. The film stars Charles Boyer and Margaret Sullavan. It is a remake of the 1932 film of the same name, also from Universal. The film follows the 1931 Fannie Hurst novel and the 1932 film version very closely,...
(1941), with Margaret Sullavan
Margaret Sullavan
Margaret Brooke Sullavan was an American stage and film actress. Sullavan started her career on the stage in 1929. In 1933 she caught the attention of movie director John M. Stahl and had her debut on the screen that same year in Only Yesterday...
; and Hold Back the Dawn
Hold Back the Dawn
Hold Back the Dawn is a 1941 romantic film in which a Romanian gigolo marries an American woman in Mexico in order to gain entry to the United States, but winds up falling in love with her...
(1941), with Olivia de Havilland
Olivia de Havilland
Olivia Mary de Havilland is a British American film and stage actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1946 and 1949. She is the elder sister of actress Joan Fontaine. The sisters are among the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s.-Early life:Olivia de Havilland...
and Paulette Goddard
Paulette Goddard
Paulette Goddard was an American film and theatre actress. A former child fashion model and in several Broadway productions as Ziegfeld Girl, she was a major star of the Paramount Studio in the 1940s. She was married to several notable men, including Charlie Chaplin, Burgess Meredith, and Erich...
.
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
Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films. She won three Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, and the Tony Award for Best Actress. She is ranked as the fourth greatest female star of American cinema of all time by the American Film Institute...
. 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.
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
Gaslight (1944 film)
Gaslight is a 1944 mystery-thriller film adapted from Patrick Hamilton's play, Gas Light, performed as Angel Street on Broadway in 1941. It was the second version to be filmed; the first, released in the United Kingdom, had been made a mere four years earlier...
(1944) and Fanny (1961), the latter also winning him a nomination for the Laurel Awards
Laurel Awards
The Laurel Awards were cinema awards to honor pictures, actors, actresses, directors and composers. This award was created by Motion Picture Exhibitor magazine, and ran from 1958 to 1968, then 1970 and 1971....
for Top Male Dramatic Performance.
He also did a well-known turn in the 1944 film Gaslight in which he played a thief/murderer who tries to convince his newlywed wife that she is going insane.
After World War II
In 1947, he was the voice of Capt. Daniel Gregg in the Lux Radio TheaterLux Radio Theater
Lux Radio Theater, a long-run classic radio anthology series, was broadcast on the NBC Blue Network ; CBS and NBC . Initially, the series adapted Broadway plays during its first two seasons before it began adapting films. These hour-long radio programs were performed live before studio audiences...
's presentation of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir romantic fantasy film starring Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison. It is based on a 1945 novel written by Josephine Leslie under the pseudonym of R. A. Dick...
, played in the film by Rex Harrison
Rex Harrison
Sir Reginald Carey “Rex” Harrison was an English actor of stage and screen. Harrison won an Academy Award and two Tony Awards.-Youth and stage career:...
. In 1948, he was made a chevalier of the French Légion d'honneur.
When another film with Bergman, Arch of Triumph
Arch of Triumph (1948 film)
Arch of Triumph is a 1948 American war romance film made by Enterprise Productions. The film was directed by Lewis Milestone and adapted from the 1945 Erich Maria Remarque novel Arch of Triumph....
(1948), failed at the box office, he started looking for character parts. Apart from several French films such as Max Ophuls
Max Ophüls
Maximillian Oppenheimer — known as Max Ophüls — was an influential German-born film director who worked in Germany , France , the United States , and France again...
' The Earrings of Madame de...
The Earrings of Madame de...
The Earrings of Madame de... is a 1953 drama film directed by Max Ophüls. It was adapted from Louise Leveque de Vilmorin's period novel.This film is considered as a masterpiece of the 1950s French cinema....
(1953, again with Danielle Darrieux) and Nana (1955, opposite Martine Carol
Martine Carol
-Biography:Born Marie-Louise Jeanne Nicolle Mourer in Saint-Mandé, Val-de-Marne, , she studied acting under René Simon , making her stage debut in 1940 and her first motion picture in 1943. One of the most beautiful women in film, she was frequently cast as an elegant blonde seductress...
), he also moved into television as one of the pioneering producers and stars of Four Star Theatre; Four Star Productions
Four Star Television
Four Star Television, also called Four Star International, was an American television production company. Founded in 1952 as Four Star Productions by prominent Hollywood actors Dick Powell, David Niven, Ida Lupino, and Charles Boyer, the company produced many well-known shows of the early days of...
would make him and partners David Niven
David Niven
James David Graham Niven , known as David Niven, was a British actor and novelist, best known for his roles as Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days and Sir Charles Lytton, a.k.a. "the Phantom", in The Pink Panther...
and Dick Powell
Dick Powell
Richard Ewing "Dick" Powell was an American singer, actor, producer, director and studio boss.Despite the same last name he was not related to William Powell, Eleanor Powell or Jane Powell.-Biography:...
rich. In 1956, Boyer was a guest star on I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy is an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, on the Columbia Broadcasting System...
.
On March 17, 1957, he starred in an adaptation for TV of the Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning play, There Shall Be No Night
There Shall Be No Night
There Shall Be No Night is a three-act play written by American playwright Robert E. Sherwood. The play was presented by the Theatre Guild from April 29 through November 2, 1940, at Broadway's Alvin Theatre...
, by Robert E. Sherwood
Robert E. Sherwood
Robert Emmet Sherwood was an American playwright, editor, and screenwriter.-Biography:Born in New Rochelle, New York, he was a son of Arthur Murray Sherwood, a rich stockbroker, and his wife, the former Rosina Emmet, a well-known illustrator and portrait painter known as Rosina E. Sherwood...
. The performance starred Katharine Cornell
Katharine Cornell
Katharine Cornell was an American stage actress, writer, theater owner and producer. She was born to American parents and raised in Buffalo, New York.Cornell is known as the greatest American stage actress of the 20th century...
, and was broadcast on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
as part of the Hallmark Hall of Fame
Hallmark Hall of Fame
Hallmark Hall of Fame is an anthology program on American television, sponsored by Hallmark Cards, a Kansas City based greeting card company. The second longest-running television program in the history of television, it has a historically long run, beginning in 1951 and continuing into 2011...
. He was nominated for the Golden Globe as Best Actor for the 1952 film The Happy Time
The Happy Time
The Happy Time is a 1952 movie directed by the award-winning director Richard Fleischer, based on the 1945 novel of the same name by Robert Fontaine, which Samuel A. Taylor turned it into a hit play. A boy, played by Bobby Driscoll, comes of age in a close-knit French-Canadian family. The film...
; and also nominated for the Emmy for Best Continuing Performance by an Actor in a Dramatic Series for his work in Four Star Playhouse
Four Star Playhouse
Four Star Playhouse is an American television anthology series that ran from 1952 to 1956, sponsored in its first bi-weekly season by The Singer Company; Bristol-Myers became an alternate sponsor when it became a weekly series in the fall of 1953...
(1952–1956).
In 1951, he appeared on the Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
stage in one of his most notable roles, that of Don Juan
Don Juan
Don Juan is a legendary, fictional libertine whose story has been told many times by many authors. El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra by Tirso de Molina is a play set in the fourteenth century that was published in Spain around 1630...
, in a dramatic reading of the third act of George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
's Man and Superman
Man and Superman
Man and Superman is a four-act drama, written by George Bernard Shaw in 1903. The series was written in response to calls for Shaw to write a play based on the Don Juan theme. Man and Superman opened at The Royal Court Theatre in London on 23 May 1905, but with the omission of the 3rd Act...
. This is the act popularly known as Don Juan in Hell. In 1952, he won Broadway's 1951 Special Tony Award
Special Tony Award
The Special Tony Award category includes the Lifetime Achievement Award and Special Tony Award. These are non-competitive awards, and the titles have changed over the years...
for Don Juan in Hell. It was directed by actor Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton was an English-American stage and film actor, screenwriter, producer and director.-Early life and career:...
. Laughton co-starred as the Devil, with Cedric Hardwicke
Cedric Hardwicke
Sir Cedric Webster Hardwicke was a noted English stage and film actor whose career spanned nearly fifty years...
as the statue of the military commander slain by Don Juan, and Agnes Moorehead
Agnes Moorehead
Agnes Robertson Moorehead was an American actress. Although she began with the Mercury Theatre, appeared in more than seventy films beginning with Citizen Kane and on dozens of television shows during a career that spanned more than thirty years, Moorehead is most widely known to modern audiences...
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, but in 2009 it became available as an MP3 download. Boyer co-starred again with Claudette Colbert in the Broadway comedy The Marriage-Go-Round
The Marriage-Go-Round
The Marriage-Go-Round is a 1958 play written by Leslie Stevens and a 1961 film adaptation also written and produced by Stevens. It was inspired by a suggestion that dancer Isadora Duncan supposedly made to playwright George Bernard Shaw: the two of them should have a child because "with your mind...
(1958–1960), but said to the producer, "Keep that woman away from me". He was also nominated for the Tony Award as Best Actor
Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play
The Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play presented since 1947, is awarded to actors in productions of new or revival plays.-1940s:*1947 - José Ferrer – Cyrano de Bergerac / Fredric March – Years Ago...
(Dramatic) in the 1963 Broadway production of Lord Pengo. Later the same year Boyer performed in Man and Boy
Man and Boy
Man and Boy is a play by Terence Rattigan.It was first performed at The Queen's Theatre, London, and Brooks Atkinson Theatre, New York, in 1963. It was poorly received, but revived in 2005 at the Duchess Theatre, London, with David Suchet as the lead part, Gregor Antonescu, to great acclaim...
on the London and New York stage.
Later career
Onscreen, he continued in older roles: in Fanny (1961) starring Leslie CaronLeslie Caron
Leslie Claire Margaret Caron is a French film actress and dancer, who appeared in 45 films between 1951 and 2003. In 2006, her performance in Law and Order: Special Victims Unit won her an Emmy for guest actress in a drama series...
; Barefoot in the Park
Barefoot in the Park (film)
Barefoot in the Park is a 1967 American comedy film.Based on Neil Simon's 1963 play of the same title, it focuses on newlyweds Corie and Paul Bratter and their adventures living in a minuscule sixth floor walk-up apartment in a Greenwich Village brownstone...
(1967) with Robert Redford
Robert Redford
Charles Robert Redford, Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime...
and Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an...
; and the French film Stavisky
Stavisky
Stavisky... is a 1974 French film drama based on the life of the financier and embezzler Alexandre Stavisky and the circumstances leading to his mysterious death in 1934. This gave rise to a political scandal known as the Stavisky Affair, which led to fatal riots in Paris, the resignation of two...
(1974, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo
Jean-Paul Belmondo
Jean-Paul Belmondo is a French actor initially associated with the New Wave of the 1960s.-Career:Born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, west of Paris, Belmondo did not perform well in school, but developed a passion for boxing and football."Did you box professionally very long?" "Not very long...
), the latter winning him the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor
The New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor is an award given by the New York Film Critics Circle, honoring the finest achievements in filmmaking.This awards is given since 1969.- 1960s :- 1970s :- 1980s :- 1990s :- 2000s :...
, and also received the Special Tribute at Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
.
Another notable TV series, The Rogues
The Rogues (TV series)
The Rogues is an American television series that appeared on NBC from September 13, 1964 to April 18, 1965, starring David Niven, Charles Boyer, and Gig Young as a related trio of former conmen who could, for the right price, be persuaded to trick a very wealthy and very unscrupulous mark...
, starred Boyer with David Niven
David Niven
James David Graham Niven , known as David Niven, was a British actor and novelist, best known for his roles as Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days and Sir Charles Lytton, a.k.a. "the Phantom", in The Pink Panther...
and Gig Young
Gig Young
Gig Young was an American film, stage, and television actor. Known mainly for second leads and supporting roles, Young won an Academy Award for his performance as a dance-marathon emcee in the 1969 film, They Shoot Horses, Don't They?.-Early life and career:Born Byron Elsworth Barr in St...
; the show lasted through the 1964–1965 season.
His career lasted longer than other romantic actors, winning him the nickname "the last of the cinema's great lovers." He recorded a very dark album called Where Does Love Go? in 1966. The album consisted of famous love songs sung (or rather spoken) with Boyer's distinctive deep voice and French accent. The record was reportedly Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
's favorite album for the last 11 years of his life, the one he most listened to.
Later in life, he turned to character parts in such films as: Around the World in 80 Days
Around the World in Eighty Days (1956 film)
Around the World in 80 Days is a 1956 adventure film produced by the Michael Todd Company and released by United Artists. It was directed by Michael Anderson. It was produced by Michael Todd, with Kevin McClory and William Cameron Menzies as associate producers. The screenplay was written by James...
(1956), How to Steal a Million
How to Steal a Million
How to Steal a Million is a 1966 heist comedy film, directed by William Wyler and starring Peter O'Toole, Audrey Hepburn, and Hugh Griffith. It is set and filmed in France, though the characters speak entirely in English...
(1966, featuring Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Although modest about her acting ability, Hepburn remains one of the world's most famous actresses of all time, remembered as a film and fashion icon of the twentieth century...
), Is Paris Burning?
Is Paris Burning?
Is Paris Burning? is a 1966 film dealing with the 1944 liberation of Paris by rival branches of the French Resistance and the Free French Forces.-Plot:...
(1966), and Casino Royale
Casino Royale (1967 film)
Casino Royale is a 1967 comedy spy film originally produced by Columbia Pictures starring an ensemble cast of directors and actors. It is set as a satire of the James Bond film series and the spy genre, and is loosely based on Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel.The film stars David Niven as the...
(1967). He had a notable part as a corrupt city official in the 1969 film version of The Madwoman of Chaillot
The Madwoman of Chaillot (film)
The Madwoman of Chaillot is a 1969 American satirical comedy-drama film made by Commonwealth United Entertainment and distributed by Warner Bros.-Seven Arts. It was directed by Bryan Forbes and produced by Ely A. Landau with Anthony B. Unger as associate producer...
, featuring Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...
. His last major film role in Hollywood was that of the High Lama in a poorly received musical version of Lost Horizon
Lost Horizon (1973 film)
Lost Horizon is a 1973 musical film directed by Charles Jarrott and starring Peter Finch, John Gielgud, Liv Ullmann, Michael York, Sally Kellerman, Bobby Van, George Kennedy, Olivia Hussey, James Shigeta and Charles Boyer....
(1973). A year later, he gave a final outstanding performance in his native language as Baron Raoul in Alain Resnais's Stavisky
Stavisky
Stavisky... is a 1974 French film drama based on the life of the financier and embezzler Alexandre Stavisky and the circumstances leading to his mysterious death in 1934. This gave rise to a political scandal known as the Stavisky Affair, which led to fatal riots in Paris, the resignation of two...
(1974)
For his contribution to the motion picture and television industries, Boyer has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
at 6300 Hollywood Blvd.
Interesting piece of trivia: Cyndi Lauper mouthed Marlene Dietrich and Charles Boyer's lines from the 1936 film, The Garden of Allah, in her 1984 video, "Time After Time."
Personal life
In addition to French and English, Boyer spoke Italian, German, and Spanish.His only marriage was to British actress Pat Paterson
Pat Paterson
Pat Paterson was an Anglo-Scottish film actress, born in Bradford, England. Though she made over 20 films, she is most famous for being the wife of French-born actor Charles Boyer and for the death of their only child, Michael, at his own 21st birthday party.-Childhood and early life:She was born...
, whom he met at a dinner party in 1934. The two became engaged after two weeks of courtship
Courtship
Courtship is the period in a couple's relationship which precedes their engagement and marriage, or establishment of an agreed relationship of a more enduring kind. In courtship, a couple get to know each other and decide if there will be an engagement or other such agreement...
and were married three months later. Later, they would move from Hollywood to Paradise Valley, Arizona
Paradise Valley, Arizona
Paradise Valley is a small, affluent town in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. According to the 2005 Census Bureau, the population of the town was 14,558. Despite the town's relatively small area and population compared to other municipalities in the Phoenix metropolitan area, Paradise...
. The marriage lasted 44 years.
In Hollywood, he also was one of the few close friends of the great French actor/singer Maurice Chevalier
Maurice Chevalier
Maurice Auguste Chevalier was a French actor, singer, entertainer and a noted Sprechgesang performer. He is perhaps best known for his signature songs, including Louise, Mimi, Valentine, and Thank Heaven for Little Girls and for his films including The Love Parade and The Big Pond...
. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1942.
On 26 August 1978, two days after his wife died from cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
, and two days before his own 79th birthday, Boyer committed suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
with an overdose of Seconal while at a friend's home in Scottsdale
Scottsdale, Arizona
Scottsdale is a city in the eastern part of Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, adjacent to Phoenix. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2010 the population of the city was 217,385...
. He was taken to the hospital in Phoenix
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
, where he died. He was interred in Holy Cross Cemetery
Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City
Holy Cross Cemetery is a Roman Catholic cemetery at 5835 West Slauson Avenue in Culver City, California, operated by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles....
, Culver City, California
Culver City, California
Culver City is a city in western Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 38,883, up from 38,816 at the 2000 census. It is mostly surrounded by the city of Los Angeles, but also shares a border with unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County. Culver...
, alongside his wife and son Michael Charles Boyer (1943–1965). On the night of 10 December 1964, at his own 21st birthday party in his LA home, their son Michael shot himself. The media reported his death as a deliberate suicide although the website for his mother, Pat Peterson, suggests that it was the result of being horribly drunk and playing Russian roulette with a loaded gun.
Film
- L'Homme du large (1920)
- Chantelouve (1921)
- Le Grillon du foyer (1922)
- Esclave (1922)
- Infernal Circle (1928)
- La Barcarolle d'amour (1929)
- Captain Fracasse (1929)
- Le Procès de Mary Dugan (1930)
- Revolt in the Prison (1931)
- The Magnificent Lie (1931)
- Tumultes (1932)
- The Man from Yesterday (1932)
- Red-Headed WomanRed-Headed WomanRed-Headed Woman is a 1932 Pre-Code comedy film, produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, based on a novel by Katherine Brush, and with a screenplay by Anita Loos. It was directed by Jack Conway, and stars Jean Harlow as a woman who uses sex to advance her social position...
(1932) - La Bataille (1933)
- L'ÉpervierL'ÉpervierL'Épervier , is a French drama film from 1933, directed and written by Marcel L'Herbier, starring Charles Boyer and Jean Marais. The film was based on novel of Francis de Croisset...
(1933) - The Empress and I (1933, voice)
- F.P.1 Doesn't Answer (1933)
- Moi et l'impératrice (1933)
- LiliomLiliom (1934 film)Liliom is a 1934 French fantasy film directed by Fritz Lang based on the Hungarian stage play of the same name by Ferenc Molnár. The film stars Charles Boyer as Liliom , a carousel barker who is fired his job after falling in love with the chambermaid Julie...
(1934) - The BattleThe Battle (1934 film)The Battle is a 1934 Franco-British co-production English language drama film directed by Nicolas Farkas and Viktor Tourjansky, and starring Charles Boyer, Merle Oberon and Betty Stockfeld. It was adapted from a novel by Claude Farrère...
(1934) - The Only Girl (1934)
- CaravanCaravan (1934 film)Caravan is a film made by Fox Film Corporation, directed by Erik Charell. The film stars Charles Boyer, Loretta Young and Jean Parker. Fox also produced a French language version of this film, Caravane starring Boyer, Annabella, and Conchita Montenegro.-Cast:*Charles Boyer as Latzi*Loretta...
(1934) - Caravane (1934)
- Le BonheurLe Bonheur (1934 film)Le Bonheur is a 1934 French film directed by Marcel L'Herbier. It was adapted from Henry Bernstein's play Le Bonheur, which Bernstein had staged in Paris in March 1933 with Charles Boyer and Michel Simon in leading roles; Boyer and Simon took the same parts in the film.-Background:In 1934 Marcel...
(1934) - Private WorldsPrivate WorldsPrivate Worlds is a drama film which tells the story of the staff and patients at a mental hospital, and the chief of the hospital who has problems dealing with a female psychiatrist. It stars Claudette Colbert, Charles Boyer, Joel McCrea, Joan Bennett, and Helen Vinson.The movie was written by...
(1935) - Break of HeartsBreak of HeartsBreak of Hearts is a 1935 RKO film starring Katharine Hepburn and Charles Boyer. The screenplay was written by the team of Sarah Y. Mason and Victor Heerman, with Anthony Veiller, from a story by Lester Cohen, specifically for Hepburn....
(1935) - Shanghai (1935)
- I Loved a SoldierI Loved a SoldierI Loved a Soldier is an unfinished 1936 Paramount Pictures film starring Marlene Dietrich and Charles Boyer, and directed by Henry Hathaway....
(1936, Unfinished film) - MayerlingMayerling (1936 film)Mayerling is a 1936 French historical drama film directed by Anatole Litvak and produced by Seymour Nebenzal from a screenplay by Marcel Achard, Joseph Kessel and Irma von Cube, based on the novel Idol's End by Claude Anet. The film stars Charles Boyer and Danielle Darrieux with Jean-Louis...
(1936) - The Garden of Allah (1936)
- History Is Made at NightHistory Is Made at Night (1937 film)History Is Made at Night is a 1937 romantic drama with elements of comedy and spectacle.It deals with a love triangle among a possessive shipping magnate, his beautiful wife, and a French headwaiter, with a spectacular ocean liner as a backdrop....
(1937) - Conquest (1937)
- TovarichTovarich (film)Tovarich is a 1937 American comedy film directed by Anatole Litvak, based on the 1935 play by Robert E. Sherwood, which in turn was based on the 1933 French play Tovaritsch by Jacques Deval. It was produced by Litvak through Warner Bros., with Robert Lord as associate producer and Hal B. Wallis...
(1937) - OrageOrage (film)Orage is a 1938 French drama film directed by Marc Allégret. The screenplay was written by Marcel Achard and H.G. Lustig, based on play "Le venin" by Henri Bernstein...
(1938) - AlgiersAlgiers (film)Algiers is a 1938 American drama film directed by John Cromwell and starring Charles Boyer, Sigrid Gurie, and Hedy Lamarr. The Walter Wanger production was a remake of the successful 1937 French film Pépé le Moko, which derived its plot from the Henri La Barthe novel of the same name...
(1938) - Le Corsaire (1939)
- Love Affair (1939)
- When Tomorrow ComesWhen Tomorrow Comes (film)When Tomorrow Comes is a 1939 romantic drama film starring Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer. A waitress falls in love with a man who later turns out to be a married concert pianist. Bernard B...
(1939) - All This, and Heaven Too (1940)
- Back StreetBack Street (1941 film)Back Street is a 1941 drama film made by Universal Pictures, directed by Robert Stevenson. The film stars Charles Boyer and Margaret Sullavan. It is a remake of the 1932 film of the same name, also from Universal. The film follows the 1931 Fannie Hurst novel and the 1932 film version very closely,...
(1941) - Hold Back the DawnHold Back the DawnHold Back the Dawn is a 1941 romantic film in which a Romanian gigolo marries an American woman in Mexico in order to gain entry to the United States, but winds up falling in love with her...
(1941) - Appointment for Love (1941)
- Tales of ManhattanTales of ManhattanTales of Manhattan is a 1942 American anthology film directed by Julien Duvivier. Thirteen writers, including Ben Hecht, Alan Campbell, Ferenc Molnár, Samuel Hoffenstein, and Donald Ogden Stewart worked on the six stories in this film.-Cast:...
(1942) - The Heart of a NationThe Heart of a NationThe Heart of a Nation is a 1943 French drama film directed by Julien Duvivier who co-wrote screenplay with Marcel Achard and Charles Spaak. The film stars Raimu, Michèle Morgan and Louis Jouvet...
(1943, US version only) - The Constant NymphThe Constant Nymph (1943 film)The Constant Nymph is a 1943 romantic drama film starring Charles Boyer, Joan Fontaine, Alexis Smith, Brenda Marshall, Charles Coburn, Dame May Whitty and Peter Lorre...
(1943) - Flesh and FantasyFlesh and FantasyFlesh and Fantasy is a 1943 American anthology film directed by Julien Duvivier, starring Edward G. Robinson, Charles Boyer and Barbara Stanwyck. The making of this film was inspired by the success of Duvivier's previous anthology film, the 1942 Tales of Manhattan.Flesh and Fantasy tells three...
(1943, third segment) - GaslightGaslight (1944 film)Gaslight is a 1944 mystery-thriller film adapted from Patrick Hamilton's play, Gas Light, performed as Angel Street on Broadway in 1941. It was the second version to be filmed; the first, released in the United Kingdom, had been made a mere four years earlier...
(1944) - Together AgainTogether Again (film)Together Again is a 1944 comedy film directed by Charles Vidor. The screenplay was written by F. Hugh Herbert and Virginia Van Upp, based on story by Herbert J...
(1944) - The Fighting LadyThe Fighting LadyThe Fighting Lady is a documentary/propaganda film produced by the U.S. Navy.The plot of the film revolves around the life of seamen on board an anonymous aircraft carrier. Because of war time restrictions, the name of the aircraft carrier was disguised as "the Fighting Lady"; afterwards the...
(1944, French version only) Narrator - Confidential AgentConfidential AgentConfidential Agent is a 1945 spy film made by Warner Bros. It was directed by Herman Shumlin and produced by Robert Buckner with Jack L. Warner as executive producer. The screenplay was by Robert Buckner, based on the novel The Confidential Agent by Graham Greene...
(1945) - The Battle of the Rails (1946)
- Cluny BrownCluny BrownCluny Brown is a 1946 film made by Twentieth Century-Fox, directed and produced by Ernst Lubitsch. The screenplay was written by Samuel Hoffenstein and Elizabeth Reinhardt, based on a novel by Margery Sharp. The music score is by Cyril J. Mockridge. The film stars Charles Boyer and Jennifer Jones...
(1946) - A Woman's VengeanceA Woman's VengeanceA Woman's Vengeance is a film directed by Zoltán Korda, with a screenplay by Aldous Huxley based on his short story "The Gioconda Smile", and starring Charles Boyer, Ann Blyth, Jessica Tandy, Cedric Hardwicke, Rachel Kempson, and Mildred Natwick. The film was released by Universal Studios....
(1948) - Arch of TriumphArch of Triumph (1948 film)Arch of Triumph is a 1948 American war romance film made by Enterprise Productions. The film was directed by Lewis Milestone and adapted from the 1945 Erich Maria Remarque novel Arch of Triumph....
(1948) - The 13th LetterThe 13th LetterThe 13th Letter is a 1951 film directed by Otto Preminger. The film is a remake of Le Corbeau directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot.-Plot:...
(1951) - The First Legion (1951)
- The Happy TimeThe Happy TimeThe Happy Time is a 1952 movie directed by the award-winning director Richard Fleischer, based on the 1945 novel of the same name by Robert Fontaine, which Samuel A. Taylor turned it into a hit play. A boy, played by Bobby Driscoll, comes of age in a close-knit French-Canadian family. The film...
(1952) - Thunder in the EastThunder in the East (film)Thunder in the East is a 1952 war drama film released by Paramount Pictures, and directed by Charles Vidor, based on novel Rage of the Vulture by Alan Moorehead.-Cast:*Alan Ladd as Steve Gibbs*Deborah Kerr as Joan Willoughby...
(1952) - The Earrings of Madame de...The Earrings of Madame de...The Earrings of Madame de... is a 1953 drama film directed by Max Ophüls. It was adapted from Louise Leveque de Vilmorin's period novel.This film is considered as a masterpiece of the 1950s French cinema....
(1953) - Boum sur Paris (1953)
- The CobwebThe Cobweb (film)The Cobweb is a MGM film. It was directed by Vincente Minnelli and based on a novel by William Gibson. It was released on DVD as part of the Warner Archive Collection on January 18, 2011....
(1955) - NanaNana (1955 film)Nana or Nanà is a French-Italian film by Christian-Jaque starring Charles Boyer. It is an adaptation of Emile Zola's novel Nana....
(1955) - Lucky to Be a WomanLucky to Be a WomanLucky to Be a Woman is a 1956 Italian comedy film directed by Alessandro Blasetti starring Sophia Loren and Charles Boyer.-Cast:* Sophia Loren - Antonietta Fallari* Charles Boyer - Count Gregorio Sennetti* Marcello Mastroianni - Corrado Betti...
(1956) - Around the World in 80 Days (1956)
- Paris, Palace Hotel (1956)
- It Happened on the 36 Candles (1957, uncredited)
- La Parisienne (1957)
- MaximeMaxime (film)Maxime is a 1958 French drama film directed by Henri Verneuil who co-wrote screenplay with Henri Jeanson and Albert Valentin. It based on novel by Henri Duvernois...
(1958) - The BuccaneerThe Buccaneer (1958 film)The Buccaneer is a 1958 War film, made by Paramount Pictures like the 1938 version and shot in Technicolor and VistaVision. It takes place during the War of 1812, and tells a heavily fictionalized version of how the pirate Jean Lafitte helped in the Battle of New Orleans and how he had to choose...
(1958) - Fanny (1961)
- Midnight Folly (1961)
- The Four Horsemen of the ApocalypseFour Horsemen of the Apocalypse (film)The 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse is a 1962 drama film based on a novel by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez. It was directed by Vincente Minnelli and starred Glenn Ford, Ingrid Thulin, Charles Boyer, Lee J. Cobb, Paul Lukas, Yvette Mimieux, Karlheinz Böhm, and Paul Henreid.Released by MGM, the film lost six...
(1962) - Adorable JuliaAdorable JuliaAdorable Julia is a 1962 German comedy film directed by Alfred Weidenmann. It was entered into the 1962 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Lilli Palmer - Julia Lambert* Charles Boyer - Michael Grosselyn* Jean Sorel - Tom Fennel...
(1962) - Love Is a BallLove Is a BallLove Is a Ball is a 1963 romantic comedy film starring Glenn Ford and Hope Lange. It is based on the book The Grand Duke and Mr. Pimm by Lindsay Hardy.-Plot:...
(1963) - A Very Special FavorA Very Special FavorA Very Special Favor is a 1965 romantic comedy film directed by Michael Gordon, and starring Rock Hudson and Leslie Caron.-Plot:Paul Chadwick is a wealthy American oilman who is in a Parisian court, where he is up against the opposing lawyer Michel Boullard . Paul wins the case, but only by...
(1965) - How to Steal a MillionHow to Steal a MillionHow to Steal a Million is a 1966 heist comedy film, directed by William Wyler and starring Peter O'Toole, Audrey Hepburn, and Hugh Griffith. It is set and filmed in France, though the characters speak entirely in English...
(1966) - Is Paris Burning?Is Paris Burning?Is Paris Burning? is a 1966 film dealing with the 1944 liberation of Paris by rival branches of the French Resistance and the Free French Forces.-Plot:...
(1966) - Casino RoyaleCasino Royale (1967 film)Casino Royale is a 1967 comedy spy film originally produced by Columbia Pictures starring an ensemble cast of directors and actors. It is set as a satire of the James Bond film series and the spy genre, and is loosely based on Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel.The film stars David Niven as the...
(1967) - Barefoot in the ParkBarefoot in the Park (film)Barefoot in the Park is a 1967 American comedy film.Based on Neil Simon's 1963 play of the same title, it focuses on newlyweds Corie and Paul Bratter and their adventures living in a minuscule sixth floor walk-up apartment in a Greenwich Village brownstone...
(1967) - Hot Line (1968)
- The April FoolsThe April FoolsThe April Fools is a 1969 romantic comedy film starring Jack Lemmon and Catherine Deneuve. It was directed by Stuart Rosenberg.-Plot:Howard Brubaker is married to Phyllis, who doesn't love him. Catherine is the stunning wife of an equally uncaring husband, Howard's philandering boss Ted Gunther...
(1969) - The Madwoman of ChaillotThe Madwoman of Chaillot (film)The Madwoman of Chaillot is a 1969 American satirical comedy-drama film made by Commonwealth United Entertainment and distributed by Warner Bros.-Seven Arts. It was directed by Bryan Forbes and produced by Ely A. Landau with Anthony B. Unger as associate producer...
(1969) - Lost HorizonLost Horizon (1973 film)Lost Horizon is a 1973 musical film directed by Charles Jarrott and starring Peter Finch, John Gielgud, Liv Ullmann, Michael York, Sally Kellerman, Bobby Van, George Kennedy, Olivia Hussey, James Shigeta and Charles Boyer....
(1973) - StaviskyStaviskyStavisky... is a 1974 French film drama based on the life of the financier and embezzler Alexandre Stavisky and the circumstances leading to his mysterious death in 1934. This gave rise to a political scandal known as the Stavisky Affair, which led to fatal riots in Paris, the resignation of two...
(1974) - A Matter of TimeA Matter of Time (1976 film)A Matter of Time is a 1976 American/Italian musical fantasy film directed by Vincente Minnelli. The screenplay by John Gay is based on the novel Film of Memory by Maurice Druon...
(1976)
Television
- Four Star PlayhouseFour Star PlayhouseFour Star Playhouse is an American television anthology series that ran from 1952 to 1956, sponsored in its first bi-weekly season by The Singer Company; Bristol-Myers became an alternate sponsor when it became a weekly series in the fall of 1953...
(29 episodes, 1952–1956) - Charles Boyer Theater (1953)
- The Jackie Gleason ShowThe Jackie Gleason ShowThe Jackie Gleason Show is the name of a series of popular American network television shows that starred Jackie Gleason, which ran from 1952 to 1970.-Cavalcade of Stars:...
(1 episode, 1953) - Toast of the Town (2 episodes, 1953)
- I Love LucyI Love LucyI Love Lucy is an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, on the Columbia Broadcasting System...
episode: Lucy Meets Charles Boyer (1956) - Climax! (1 episode, 1956)
- Hallmark Hall of FameHallmark Hall of FameHallmark Hall of Fame is an anthology program on American television, sponsored by Hallmark Cards, a Kansas City based greeting card company. The second longest-running television program in the history of television, it has a historically long run, beginning in 1951 and continuing into 2011...
(1 episode, 1957) - Playhouse 90Playhouse 90Playhouse 90 is an American television anthology series that was telecast on CBS from 1956 to 1960 for a total of 133 episodes. It originated from CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California...
(1 episode, 1957) - A Private Little Party for a Few Chums (1957)
- Goodyear TheatreGoodyear TheatreGoodyear Theatre is a 30-minute dramatic television anthology series telecast on NBC from 1957 to 1960 for a total of 55 episodes. The live show was derected by Don Taylor, Arthur Hiller and James Sheldon...
(unknown episodes, 1957–1958) - Alcoa TheatreAlcoa TheatreAlcoa Theatre is a half-hour anthology series telecast on NBC at 9:30 pm on alternate Monday nights from October 7, 1957 to September 16, 1960. The program also aired under the title Turn of Fate, with the stories depicting the difficulties faced by individuals who are suddenly thrust into...
(3 episodes, 1957–1958) - What's My Line?What's My Line?What's My Line? is a panel game show which originally ran in the United States on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967, with several international versions and subsequent U.S. revivals. The game tasked celebrity panelists with questioning contestants in order to determine their occupations....
(4 episodes, 1957–1958, 1962–1963) - The Dinah Shore Chevy ShowThe Dinah Shore Chevy ShowThe Dinah Shore Chevy Show is an American variety series hosted by Dinah Shore, and broadcast on NBC from October 1956 to June 1963. The series was sponsored by the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors and its theme song, sung by Shore, was "See the U.S.A...
(1 episode, 1960) - The Dick Powell ShowThe Dick Powell ShowThe Dick Powell Show is an American anthology series that ran on NBC from 1961- 1963, primarily sponsored by the Reynolds Metals Company. It was hosted by longtime film star Dick Powell until his death from lymphatic cancer on January 2, 1963, then by a series of guest hosts until the series ended...
(4 episodes, 1962–1963) - A Golden Prison: The Louvre (1964, presenter)
- The RoguesThe Rogues (TV series)The Rogues is an American television series that appeared on NBC from September 13, 1964 to April 18, 1965, starring David Niven, Charles Boyer, and Gig Young as a related trio of former conmen who could, for the right price, be persuaded to trick a very wealthy and very unscrupulous mark...
(8 episodes, 1964–1965) - The Bell Telephone HourThe Bell Telephone HourThe Bell Telephone Hour is a long-run concert series which began April 29, 1940 on NBC Radio and was heard on NBC until June 30, 1958. Sponsored by Bell Telephone, it showcased the best in classical and Broadway music, reaching eight to nine million listeners each week. It continued on television...
(1 episode, 1966) - The Name of the GameThe Name of the Game (TV series)The Name of the Game is an American television series starring Tony Franciosa, Gene Barry, and Robert Stack that ran from 1968 to 1971 on NBC, totaling 76 episodes of 90 minutes. It was a pioneering wheel series, setting the stage for the likes of The Bold Ones and the NBC Mystery Movie in the 1970s...
(1 episode, 1969) - Film '72 (1 episode, 1976)
Short subjects
- The Candid Camera Story (Very Candid) of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures 1937 Convention (1937, uncredited)
- Hollywood Goes to Town (1938)
- Les îles de la liberté (1943) Narrator
- Congo (1945) Voice
- On Stage! (1949)
- 1955 Motion Picture Theatre Celebration (1955, uncredited)
Broadway
- Red Gloves (1948–1949)
- Don Juan in Hell (1951–1952)
- Kind Sir (1953–1954)
- The Marriage-Go-RoundThe Marriage-Go-RoundThe Marriage-Go-Round is a 1958 play written by Leslie Stevens and a 1961 film adaptation also written and produced by Stevens. It was inspired by a suggestion that dancer Isadora Duncan supposedly made to playwright George Bernard Shaw: the two of them should have a child because "with your mind...
(1958–1960) - Lord Pengo (1962–1963)
- Man and BoyMan and BoyMan and Boy is a play by Terence Rattigan.It was first performed at The Queen's Theatre, London, and Brooks Atkinson Theatre, New York, in 1963. It was poorly received, but revived in 2005 at the Duchess Theatre, London, with David Suchet as the lead part, Gregor Antonescu, to great acclaim...
(1963)
External links
- Sur le site Quercy.net À propos de Charles Boyer et de Figeac.
- Photographs and literature