Fernand Gravey
Fernand Gravey (25 December 1905 in Ixelles (Belgium) – 2 November 1970 in Paris, France), also known as Fernand Gravet in the United States, was the son of actors Georges Mertens and Fernande Depernay, who appeared in silent films produced by pioneer Belge Cinéma Film (a subsidiary of Pathé). Gravey started performing at age five under his father's direction. Before World War I, he received an education in Britain and could speak both French and English fluently, something which became useful in his movie roles. During the war, Gravey served in the British Merchant Marine Corp. In 1936, he married the French actress Jane Renouardt, who was 15 years his senior. They remained together until his death on 2 November 1970 of a heart-attack. Jane died on 3 February 1972. They had no children. Gravey performed in four films in 1913 and 1914 (as Fernand Mertens), but his first film of importance was L'Amour Chante, released in 1930. In 1933, he made Bitter Sweet, his first English language movie, which became more famous in its 1940 incarnation with Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. In 1937, after several more French and British movies, Gravey went to Hollywood, where the spelling of his last name was altered to Gravet, and he became the focus of a rather extensive Hollywood publicity campaign (instructing moviegoers to pronounce his name properly: "Rhymes with Gravy"). Unfortunately for Gravey, he was offered only standard parts, the type of Gallic-lover roles that Louis Jourdan played in the 1950s and 1960s. The first two films he made in Hollywood were for Warner Brothers: The King and the Chorus Girl (1937), with Joan Blondell and Jane Wyman, and Fools for Scandal (1938), with Carole Lombard and Ralph Bellamy. Gravey then signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and was cast as Johann Strauss in the expensive biopic The Great Waltz, with Luise Rainer and Miliza Korjus. MGM next planned to star Gravey in a film version of Rafael Sabatini's adventure novel Scaramouche, but instead he returned to France just before the Nazi occupation began. Although he had agreed to appear in German-approved French films, Gravey was an underminer of the invaders as a member of the French Secret Army and the Foreign Legion. At the end of the war, Gravey was considered a war hero, and continued to be featured in French productions such as La Ronde (with Danielle Darrieux), and Royal Affairs in Versailles (1954). Among his last English language performances were How to Steal a Million (1966), Guns for San Sebastian (1968) and The Madwoman of Chaillot (1969), in which he played the police inspector. Source: Article "Fernand Gravey" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
How to Steal a Million
as GrammontA woman must steal a statue from a Paris museum to help conceal her father's art forgeries.
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Guns for San Sebastian
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That's Entertainment, Part II
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La Ronde
as Charles Breitkopf, son mariAn all-knowing interlocutor guides us through a series of affairs in Vienna, 1900. A soldier...
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The Madwoman of Chaillot
as Police sergeantAn eccentric Parisian woman's optimistic perception of life begins to sound more rational than...
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Royal Affairs in Versailles
as MolièreWitty narration follows the history of Versailles Palace; founded by Louis XIII, enlarged by...
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The Last Turning
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Fanfare of Love
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Give Her the Moon
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Foolish Husbands
as Gérard BarbierBy mutual agreement, a man and a woman are separated to allow the wife to join her lover.
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Toto in Paris
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Hollywood Goes to Town
as SelfThis short shows how Hollywood gets ready for the world premiere of an "important" movie. The...
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Breakdowns of 1938
as Rene (archive footage) (uncredited)Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1938.
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Four Flights to Love
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The Great Waltz
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My Wife Is Formidable
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Fantastic Night
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Promise at Dawn
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Fools for Scandal
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The Age of Indiscretion
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The King and the Chorus Girl
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Gunman in the Streets
as Commissioner DufresneAn American is on the run in the streets and back alleys of France.
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Domino
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The Woman from Beirut
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The Queen's Affair
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Monsieur Sans-Gêne
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The Crumblers Are Doing Well
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Court Waltzes
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Si j'étais le patron
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La Garçonne
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The Lie of Nina Petrovna
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Early to Bed
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Thirteen at the Table
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The Happiest of Men
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Threesome Romance
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Captain Blomet
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Du Guesclin
as Bertrand du GuesclinA chronicle of the life of Bertrand du Guesclin, grand officer of the French army in the 14th...
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School for Coquettes
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Le Traqué
as Commissioner DufresneManhunt in Paris and as far as Belgium to catch an American gangster escaped from a police van.
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Hardboiled Egg Time
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My Husband Is Marvelous
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Antonia
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The Hideout
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Captain Fracasse
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Saïda Makes Off with the Manneken Pis
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Varieté
as PierreAnnabella, Jean Gabin and Fernand Gravey star as a trio of circus trapeze artists. Both Gabin...
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Once Is Enough
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Seven Men, One Woman
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Love Songs
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The Improvised Son
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Mister Flow
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Slightly Ahead
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Let's Get Married
as Francis LatourGisèle accidentally marries her stalker when she thinks she is signing a hotel register in a...
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La Rabouilleuse
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Touche-à-tout
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Paméla
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Symphonie D'Amour
as Charles PanardA ten-year old film when it was first released in the USA as "Symphonie D'Amour" in 1946. Panard...
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Bitter Sweet
as Carl LindenA young girl falls in love with a young conductor in Vienna, and they marry. However, their...
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Monsieur Beulemeester, Civic Guard
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Mademoiselle Josette, ma femme
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You Will Be a Duchess
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Un homme en habit
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The Premature Father
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Passionately
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The House in the Woods
as Les marquisDuring World War One, in a small rural French village far away from the front, a gamekeeper and...
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Harry's Girls
as Andre GiraudHarry's Girls is an American situation comedy which appeared on NBC from September 13, 1963, to...
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