Pierre Fresnay

Pierre Fresnay, born Pierre Jules Louis Laudenbach on 4 April 1897 in Paris, was a towering figure of French stage and cinema whose career spanned more than six decades. Encouraged by his uncle, the actor Claude Garry, he entered the Conservatoire and quickly became a pensionnaire of the Comédie‑Française in 1915, where he amassed eighty roles before his brief service in the French Army during World War I. After the armistice he returned to the troupe, delighting audiences with the works of Alfred de Musset and delivering praised performances as Mario in Le Jeu de l’amour et du hasard and the title role in Britannicus. His eloquent diction and flexible talent earned him a reputation for intelligent acting, and he remained at the Comédie‑Française until 1926 before moving to the Variétés for Guitry plays and later to the iconic role of Marius in Marcel Pagnol’s Marseille trilogy, a part he reprised on screen in 1931, 1932 and 1936.

Fresnay’s film career intertwined with the turbulent history of the 20th century. He appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s early version of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) and delivered a memorable performance as Captain de Boeldieu in Jean Renoir’s masterpiece La Grande Illusion (1937). During the German occupation he worked for Continental, starring in Henri‑Georges Clouzot’s controversial Le Corbeau, which later led to a brief imprisonment after the Liberation. Despite this setback, he won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the 1947 Venice Film Festival for Monsieur Vincent and continued to collaborate with his lifelong partner Yvonne Printemps in both stage and screen productions. In his later years he published memoirs, co‑directed the Théâtre de la Michodière, and appeared on television until his death from respiratory problems on 9 January 1975 in Neuilly‑sur‑Seine.