Jean Martin

Born: 1922-03-06

Jean Martin (6 March 1922 - 2 February 2009) was a French actor. Coming from a Berry family, he spent part of his childhood in Biarritz, where his father worked for a furrier. During the Second World War, he hid to escape the Forced Labor Service. Staying in Paris, he appeared in two films by Maurice Tourneur: "The Devil's Hand" (1942) then "Cécile Est Mort" (1943). At the twilight of the forties, he started doing theater. In 1953, Jean Martin gained notoriety by playing the new play by Irish playwright Samuel Beckett, "Waiting for Godot", under the direction of Roger Blin, becoming the first to take on the role of Lucky. The same Roger Blin produced “End of the Game” (1957), by the same Beckett, a few years later, and entrusted the same Jean Martin with the role of Clov. In 1960, Jean Martin staged his first play, “Letter Dead”, by Robert Pinget. In 1962, he again staged a play, “The Representatives”, by Aglaé and Mona Mitropoulos, adapted by Michel Arnaud. Alongside this theatrical career which would prove to be rich, Jean Martin returned to cinema: “Notre-Dame de Paris” (1956), by Jean Delannoy, “Paris belongs to us” (1958), by Jacques Rivette, “Ballade for a thug " (1962), by Jean-Claude Bonnardot, "La foire aux dunces" (1963), by Louis Daquin and "À toi de fait mignon" (1963), by Bernard Borderie. In 1960, he was a signatory of the Manifesto of the 121 entitled “Declaration on the right to insubordination in the Algerian war”. In 1965, a role marked his career, that of Colonel Mathieu, in a film retracing the struggle in 1957 for control of the Casbah district of Algiers between FLN militants and French soldiers: "The Battle of Algiers" . Three years after the end of the Algerian War, the subject is still sensitive on each side of the Mediterranean; the film was banned in France upon its release, then censored until 2004. Jean Martin, very convincing in this role of division commander (historically, the commander is General Massu, but the character is inspired by Colonel Bigeard), is the only professional actor in the film. His large stature, his strong personality and his imperious face predispose him to notable roles generally showing authority: chief doctor, police commissioner, high-ranking military officer, ecclesiastical dignitary...; one of the most impressive will undoubtedly be that of a doctor vehemently expelling from his hospital a judge Fayard, Patrick Dewaere, a bit of a cavalier in "Le Juge Fayard Dit Le Shérif" (1976). Claude Zidi mocks these roles in his comedies: principal in “La moutarde monte au nose” (1974), bank director in “La Course À L'Échalote” (1975), chief doctor in “L'aile ou la thigh” (1976), principal inspector in “Bête mais disciplined” (1979) and examiner in “Inspecteur la Bavure” (1980). Alongside Jean-Paul Belmondo, he is… cardinal in “L’Hériter” (1972) and… divisional commissioner in “Peur Sur La ville” (1975)! But also alongside Terence Hill in “My Name is Nobody” (1973) in the role of Sullivan, or “One Genius, Two Associates, One Bell (1975). After devoting a large part of his career to the theater, appearing in around fifty films, Jean Martin died on February 2, 2009, in Paris.


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The Battle of Algiers

as Colonel Philippe Mathieu
Released: 1966-09-08

Tracing the struggle of the Algerian Front de Liberation Nationale to gain freedom from French...

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The Day of the Jackal

as Victor Wolenski
Released: 1973-05-16

An international assassin known as ‘The Jackal’ is employed by disgruntled French generals to...

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My Name Is Nobody

as Sullivan
Released: 1973-12-13

Jack Beauregard, an ageing gunman of the Old West, only wants to retire in peace and move to...

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A Genius, Two Friends, and an Idiot

as Colonel Pembroke
Released: 1975-12-16

Expert conman Joe Thanks teams up with half-breed Bill and naive Lucy to steal $300,000 from the...

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The Wing or the Thigh?

as Le médecin de Duchemin à la clinique
Released: 1976-10-27

Charles Duchemin, a well-known gourmet and publisher of a famous restaurant guide, is waging a...

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Lucie Aubrac

as Paul Lardanchet
Released: 1997-02-26

A love story or a tale of the resistance, this poignant movie tells both the haunting story of a...

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The Beguines

as René
Released: 1972-09-19

Hélène, a fragile and romantic teenager, discovers that her father, a rich business man, has a...

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The Nun

as Monsieur Hébert
Released: 1966-05-06

In eighteenth-century France, a girl is forced against her will to take vows as a nun. Three...

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The Inheritor

as Mgr. Schneider
Released: 1973-03-22

After his father is killed in a plane crash, Bart Cordell returns back home to France to claim...

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The Cat

as Legrand
Released: 1977-12-16

Amedeo and Ofelia, middle aged brother and sister, own jointly an old decadent, but still...

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Je T'Aime, Je T'Aime

as Un responsable d'édition
Released: 1968-04-24

Recovering from an attempted suicide, a man is selected to participate in a time travel...

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The King and the Mockingbird

as L’oiseau (voice)
Released: 1980-03-19

The kingdom of Takicardie quakes under the rule of the tyrannical King Charles...

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Fear Over the City

as Commissaire divisionnaire Sabin
Released: 1975-04-09

A serial-killer frightens Paris by phoning young ladies at night, telling them insults about...

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Successive Slidings of Pleasure

as The Priest
Released: 1974-03-07

A young woman is questioned by the police and the judges, suspected of being a modern witch. The...

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Inspector Blunder

as Examination policeman (uncredited)
Released: 1980-12-03

A detective, fresh out of the academy (lowest mark in class), gets the assignment to bodyguard a...

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A Woman at Her Window

as Drieu La Rochelle (uncredited)
Released: 1976-11-10

Greece, 1936. An aristocratic woman engages in a series of loveless affairs before finding...

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I'm Losing My Temper

as Headmaster
Released: 1974-10-09

Pierre is a clumsy, overly serious math teacher at an all-girls high school. His life is thrown...

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The Messiah

as Pontius Pilate
Released: 1975-10-24

Rossellini takes numerous liberties with the original source material, rearranging and omitting...

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Judge Fayard Called the Sheriff

as Le docteur
Released: 1977-01-12

Jean-Marie Fayard is a young examining magistrate in a large provincial french city. He belongs...

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Soldier Martin

as Monnier
Released: 1966-09-28

A troupe of French actors on tour in Normandy become involved in the events of WWII.

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The Wild Goose Chase

as Le directeur de la banque
Released: 1975-10-08

The whole intrigue is centered around carte-blanche documents kept in a vault. Whoever fills in...

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Don't Take God's Children for Wild Geese

as A henchman of Charles (uncredited)
Released: 1968-09-06

Rita is a girl that lives on taking gangsters as lovers. But when the money stops coming, she...

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Cecile Is Dead

as Le garçon d'étage (uncredited)
Released: 1944-03-08

Cecile, a young girl who goes to the offices of the Judicial Police several times in a row to...

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The Companions of Baal

as Mauvouloir
Released: 1968-07-29

Journalist Claude Leroy (Jacques Champreux) reports that a secret society, The Companions of...

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Promise at Dawn

as Igor Igorevitch
Released: 1970-11-25

A single mother raises her son in impossible circumstances first in Leningrad, then Krakow, and...

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The Associate

as M. Bastias
Released: 1979-08-22

An unemployed investor creates a fictious business partner to attempt to improve business....

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Troubleshooters

as Homme de Varèse
Released: 1971-04-07

The day he is released from jail, Serge is expected by four killers sent by Count Charles Varèse...

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Forgotten Stones

as uncredited
Released: 1952-01-01

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Dossier 51

as Vénus
Released: 1978-08-30

French diplomat Dominique Auphal is put under surveillance by an unnamed secret service. They...

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The Carpathian Castle

as Orfanik, the Inventor
Released: 1976-12-19

In 1898, strange things happen in a castle not far from the small village of Werst in the...

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La nuit bulgare

as uncredited
Released: 1972-04-20

A youngish sales employee of a computer firm is blackmailed into helping a group of mysterious...

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Marxist Poetry: The Making of The Battle of Algiers

as Self
Released: 2004-08-01

To commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS, we revisited our edit of the...

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Safety Catch

as uncredited
Released: 1970-04-07

A doctor disbarred for euthanasia is called in by a man to help his son, who has been depressed...

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La Puce et le privé

as Gérard Le Tizou, head waiter
Released: 1981-03-11

Val Brosse, a private detective, receives Françoise, who confesses to him that she murdered her...

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Les Culottes rouges

as Un homme de la troupe (non crédité)
Released: 1962-12-19

Antoine Rossi, a recidivist prisoner of war in Germany, manages to escape with the cowardly...

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Your Turn, Darling

as uncredited
Released: 1963-09-25

In this French espionage thriller, Eddie again plays the role that made him a star, Lemmy...

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Le crime d'Ovide Plouffe

as Sculpteur
Released: 1984-08-29

Ovide Plouffe has married Rita. She still tries to attract other men even after their marriage....

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The Time of the Beginning

as Direttore clinica / Sottocapo
Released: 1974-10-15

A "symbolic" character traces the path of man in search of salvation in this world within his...

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The Invention of Morel

as Stoewer
Released: 1967-12-08

Escaped from jail, Luis finds refuge on a remote island where, it is said, several people have...

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HPW ou Anatomie d'un faussaire

as uncredited
Released: 1971-07-27

Hugo-Paul de Weydroos, forger who manages to mystify the most renowned experts, is an attractive...

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Cry of the Heart

as M. Bunkermann
Released: 1974-09-11

Alexandre, a young man from a wealthy family, suffers a serious fall. One leg is finally...

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Gustave Moreau

as Narrator
Released: 1962-01-02

A brilliant analysis of 19th century French Symbolist painter Gustave Moreau, known for his...

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Le Gentleman des Antipodes

as Sainte-Rose
Released: 1976-11-04

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Alouqa or the Comedy of the Dead

as Jean Croix
Released: 1975-08-13

Thanks to his gifts of clairvoyance, the son of a former servant of a noble family makes his...

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Une invitation à la chasse

as Le marquis de la Rocherie
Released: 1974-11-01

Claude Chabrol film for TV based on the short story An Invitation to the Hunt by Georges...

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Graf Yoster gibt sich die Ehre

as Gaston
First aired: 1967-09-15

Graf Yoster gibt sich die Ehre [French title: Le comte Yoster a bien l'honneur] is a TV series...

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Police Commissioner Moulin

as Larsen
First aired: 1976-08-04

The series follows the adventures of lighthearted Jean-Paul Moulin, a police Commissaire, and...

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Baal's Companions

as M. De Plassans
First aired: 1968-07-29

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