Sacha Guitry

Born: 1885-02-20

Alexandre-Pierre Georges Guitry (21 February 1885 – 24 July 1957), known as Sacha Guitry, was a French stage actor, film actor, director, screenwriter, and playwright of the boulevard theatre. He was the son of a leading French actor, Lucien Guitry, and followed his father into the theatrical profession. He became known for his stage performances, particularly in boulevardier roles. He was also a prolific playwright, writing 115 plays throughout his career. He was married five times, always to rising actresses whose careers he furthered. Probably his best-known wife was Yvonne Printemps to whom he was married between 1919 and 1932. Guitry's plays range from historical dramas to contemporary light comedies. Some have musical scores, by composers including André Messager and Reynaldo Hahn. When silent films became popular Guitry avoided them, finding the lack of spoken dialogue fatal to dramatic impact. From the 1930s to the end of his life he enthusiastically embraced the cinema, making as many as five films in a single year. The later years of Guitry's career were overshadowed by accusations of collaborating with the occupying Germans after the capitulation of France in the Second World War. The charges were dismissed, but Guitry, a strongly patriotic man, was disillusioned by the vilification he received from some of his compatriots. By the time of his death, his popular esteem had been restored to the extent that 12,000 people filed past his coffin before his burial in Paris. Guitry was born at No 12 Nevsky Prospect, Saint Petersburg, Russia, the third son of the French actors Lucien Guitry and his wife Marie-Louise-Renée née Delmas de Pont-Jest (1858–1902). The couple had eloped, in the face of family disapproval, and were married at St Martin in the Fields, London, in 1882. They then moved to the then Russian capital, where Lucien ran the French theatre company, the Théâtre Michel, from 1882 to 1891. The marriage was brief. Guitry senior was a persistent adulterer, and his wife instituted divorce proceedings in 1888. Two of their sons died in infancy (one in 1883 and the other in 1887); the other surviving son, Jean (1884–1920) became an actor and journalist. The family's Russian nurse habitually shortened Alexandre-Pierre's name to the Russian diminutive "Sacha", by which he was known all his life. The young Sacha made his stage debut in his father's company at the age of five. Lucien Guitry, considered the most distinguished actor in France since Coquelin, was immensely successful, both critically and commercially. When he returned to Paris he lived in a flat in a prestigious spot, overlooking the Place Vendôme and the Rue de la Paix. The young Sacha lived there, and for his schooling he was first sent to the well-known Lycée Janson de Sailly in the fashionable Sixteenth arrondissement. He did not stay long there, and went to a succession of other schools, both secular and religious, before abandoning formal education at the age of sixteen. ... Source: Article "Sacha Guitry" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.


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Napoleon

as Talleyrand
Released: 1955-03-25

The film follows the life of Napoleon from his early life in Corsica to his death at Saint...

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Royal Affairs in Versailles

as Louis XIV (plus âgé)
Released: 1954-02-10

Witty narration follows the history of Versailles Palace; founded by Louis XIII, enlarged by...

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Bluebeard's Eighth Wife

as Man Leaving Hotel in France (uncredited)
Released: 1938-03-25

American multi-millionaire Michael Brandon marries his eighth wife, Nicole, the daughter of a...

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If Paris Were Told to Us

as le narrateur et Louis XI
Released: 1956-01-27

Historical film directed and written by Sacha Guitry follows the the history of Paris from its...

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The Story of a Cheat

as le tricheur
Released: 1936-10-02

Life story of a charming scoundrel, with little dialogue other than the star/director's witty...

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Désiré

as Désiré
Released: 1937-12-03

Sacha Guitry exchanges his usual top hat for a uniform in Désiré, playing a cavalier valet...

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Camille: The Fate of a Coquette

as Mancha y Zaragosa
Released: 1926-01-01

A home movie version of the Dumas play. A young woman becomes a courtesan and tragedy befalls...

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The Devil Who Limped

as Talleyrand
Released: 1948-07-11

The film is a 125-minute, black-and-white biography of French priest and diplomat Charles...

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The Pearls of the Crown

as Jean Martin / François Ier / Barras / Napoléon III
Released: 1937-05-12

The story of the seven pearls of the English Crown, from Henry VIII to 1937 – three of them missing.

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The Private Life of an Actor

as Lucien Guitry et Sacha Guitry
Released: 1948-02-26

Biography of Lucien Guitry, stage comedian, by his son, movie director, and a poetic reflection...

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My Father Was Right

as Charles Bellanger
Released: 1936-11-27

After being left for another man by his wife, Charles Bellanger raises his only son to fear and...

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The New Testament

as Le Docteur Marcelin
Released: 1936-02-14

Husbands and wives, lovers and gigolos, all break a sweat when Dr. Marcelin’s newly-revised last...

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Mlle. Desiree

as Napoléon 1er
Released: 1941-07-03

Julie and Désirée Clary are courted by the brothers Joseph and Napoleon Bonaparte. Joseph...

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Deburau

as Jean-Gaspard Deburau
Released: 1951-06-29

Jean-Gaspard Deburau is a very successful mime, the most famous in his category. One day, he...

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Quadrille

as Philippe de Morannes
Released: 1938-01-29

The battle of the sexes as drawing room social satire. Philippe, a middle-aged newspaper editor,...

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La Malibran

as Eugène Malibran
Released: 1944-05-03

On the death of the famous singer Maria Malibran, Countess Merlin retraces the main lines of the...

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Toâ

as Michel Desnoyers
Released: 1949-10-27

Michel Desnoyer has turned his private life into a comic stage play. But the volcanic Ecaterina...

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Let's Make a Dream

as L'Amant
Released: 1936-12-31

A husband who has just cheated on his wife returns home in the early morning, puzzled. He finds...

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Nine Bachelors

as Jean Lécuyer
Released: 1939-09-29

Nine Bachelors is a 1939 French comedy film directed by Sacha Guitry and starring Guitry, Max...

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The Virtuous Scoundrel

as uncredited
Released: 1953-02-18

La Vie d'un honnête homme English: The Virtuous Scoundrel, is a French comedy drama film from...

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The Treasure of Cantenac

as le baron de Cantenac et le conteur
Released: 1950-09-06

While he was about to end his life, Baron de Cantenac wanted to return one last time to the land...

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Bonne chance

as Claude
Released: 1935-09-20

A girl, Marie, who got engaged to a boy who is leaving for military training (thirteen days)...

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Let’s Go Up the Champs-Élysées

as Le Professeur, Louis XV, Ludovic, Jean-Louis et Napoléon III
Released: 1938-12-02

The history of one of France's most famous streets is retold, featuring multiple performances...

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I Was It Three Times

as Jean Renneval
Released: 1952-12-31

A husband who had divorced twice because he had been betrayed by his former wives, takes his...

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Tu m'as sauvé la vie

as Le baron de Saint-Rambert
Released: 1950-09-20

A wealthy baron, without offspring, who knows death is approaching, wants to adopt a man who...

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My Last Mistress

as François
Released: 1943-11-24

A renowned sculptor aged about fifty years, François Bressolles falls for the young Catherine...

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From Joan of Arc to Philippe Pétain

as Narrator (voice)
Released: 1944-05-04

Sitting at his desk, Guitry gives us a lecture on French history from Joan of Arc to the...

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Two Doves

as Maître Jean-Pierre Walter
Released: 1949-07-27

A man remarried his wife's sister whom he believes died in a fire. The alleged deceased...

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Pasteur

as Louis Pasteur
Released: 1935-09-20

Guitry reprises his role as Pasteur which he played successfully at the Vaudeville Theatre in 1919.

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Le Mot de Cambronne

as Le Général Pierre Cambronne
Released: 1937-03-26

Madame Cambronne, who is English, "it's historic", would really like to know what this famous...

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Dîner de gala aux Ambassadeurs

as Self
Released: 1934-01-01

Three successive sketches: Sacha Guitry successively calls Pauline Carton, Gaston Severin and...

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