1905-12-25 ( 119 years old ) in Ixelles, Brabant, Belgium
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.
Movies
That's Entertainment, Part II
1976-05-16
The Hideout
1971-07-21
Pas moral pour deux sous
1971-06-04
Promise at Dawn
1970-11-25
Give Her the Moon
1970-02-25
The Madwoman of Chaillot
1969-10-12
Guns for San Sebastian
1968-03-20
How to Steal a Million
1966-07-13
The Woman from Beirut
1965-11-15
The Crumblers Are Doing Well
1961-11-15
Toto in Paris
1958-10-23
School for Coquettes
1958-05-21
Hardboiled Egg Time
1958-03-19
La Garçonne
1957-04-05
Mitsou
1956-12-24
Slightly Ahead
1956-10-10
Thirteen at the Table
1955-12-28
Royal Affairs in Versailles
1954-02-10
The Age of Indiscretion
1953-08-23
My Husband Is Marvelous
1953-04-29
The Happiest of Men
1952-11-26
My Wife Is Formidable
1951-12-05
Gunman in the Streets
1950-12-13
Le Traqué
1950-11-15
La Ronde
1950-09-27
Mademoiselle Josette, ma femme
1950-09-20
Du Guesclin
1949-06-03
Captain Blomet
1947-12-10
Once Is Enough
1946-10-23
Paméla
1945-05-02
La Rabouilleuse
1944-02-02
Domino
1943-07-28
Captain Fracasse
1943-06-19
Fantastic Night
1942-07-10
Threesome Romance
1942-06-17
Foolish Husbands
1941-12-18
Four Flights to Love
1939-10-27
The Last Turning
1939-05-17
Breakdowns of 1938
1938-12-31
The Great Waltz
1938-11-04
Hollywood Goes to Town
1938-07-07
Fools for Scandal
1938-04-16
The Lie of Nina Petrovna
1937-11-04
The King and the Chorus Girl
1937-03-27
Mister Flow
1936-12-02
Symphonie D'Amour
1936-09-18
Seven Men, One Woman
1936-08-28
Fanfare of Love
1935-11-16
Touche-à-tout
1935-11-01
Varieté
1935-10-04
Monsieur Sans-Gêne
1935-03-14
Antonia
1935-01-25
Si j'étais le patron
1934-10-25
C'était un musicien
1934-05-11
The Queen's Affair
1934-03-01
Court Waltzes
1933-12-15
The Premature Father
1933-09-29
Bitter Sweet
1933-08-21
Early to Bed
1933-08-08
The Improvised Son
1932-11-22
Passionately
1932-09-20
A Star Vanishes
1932-08-22
Ladies Hairdresser
1932-05-19
You Will Be a Duchess
1932-02-12
Un homme en habit
1931-06-26
Let's Get Married
1931-03-06
Love Songs
1930-11-21
Loyalty
1914-04-23
Monsieur Beulemeester, Civic Guard
1913-12-20
Saïda Makes Off with the Manneken Pis
1913-03-07
Powered by Powerxsoft Ltd using the TMDB API