1919-04-29 Paris, France
Gérard Oury (born Max-Gérard Houry Tannenbaum; 29 April 1919 – 20 July 2006) was a French film director, actor and writer. He is best known for a number of comedies he directed and co-wrote between the 1960s and 1980s, most notably The Sucker (1965), Don't Look Now... We're Being Shot At! (1966), The Brain (1969), The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob (1973), and Ace of Aces (1982). Max-Gérard Houry-Tannenbaum was the only son of Serge Tannenbaum, a violinist of Russian-Jewish origin, and French Jewish Marcelle Houry, a journalist and art critic. Tannenbaum was absent from the life of Oury and he was raised in an unobservant house of his mother and maternal grandmother Berthe Goldner. Oury studied at the Lycée Janson de Sailly and then at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art. He became a member of the Comédie-Française before World War II, but fled with all his family (mother, grandmother and unofficial wife, actress Jacqueline Roman) to Switzerland to escape the anti-Jewish persecutions by the Vichy government. When in 1942 his daughter Danièle Thompson was born, his fatherhood was concealed, to avoid her classification as a Jew. After 1945 he returned to the liberated Paris and restarted his career as an actor, performing in the theatre and in supporting roles in the cinema. Oury became a movie director in 1959 (The Itchy Palm) and gained his first success in 1961 with Crime Does Not Pay (Le crime ne paie pas). Pairing André Bourvil and Louis de Funès as a comic duo, he burst into commercial filmmaking with 1965's The Sucker (Le corniaud). The film was entered into the 4th Moscow International Film Festival. The following year, Don't Look Now... We're Being Shot At! (La Grande Vadrouille) was even more successful, attracting the largest audiences ever in France (17.27 million admissions). This box-office record stood for decades, only surpassed in 1997 by Titanic from James Cameron. Oury shot the 1969 comedy Le Cerveau (The Brain) in English, starring David Niven in the lead role as a criminal mastermind. With actress Jacqueline Roman, he was the father of French writer Danièle Thompson and grandfather of actor/writer Christopher Thompson. He lived together with the French actress Michèle Morgan for the second half of his life. He died aged 87 in Saint-Tropez on 20 July 2006. Source: Article "Gérard Oury" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.
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Les Rois de la comédie | Self (archive footage) | 2023-01-01 |
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À la recherche de... Pierre Richard | Self - Actor, director, producer (archive footage) | 2017-09-01 |
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Sur la route de la grande vadrouille | Self (archive footage) | 2016-11-22 |
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Louis de Funès, l'homme qui a passé le mur du son | Self (archive footage) | 2013-01-01 |
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La Folle Heure des grandis | Self | 2002-01-01 |
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Un homme et une femme, 20 ans déjà | Un spectateur de '40 ans déjà' | 1986-05-13 |
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The Prize | Claude Marceau | 1963-12-25 |
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La Menace | The Doctor | 1961-03-01 |
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La main chaude | Cameo Appearance (uncredited) | 1960-02-03 |
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The Journey | Teklel Hafouli | 1959-02-11 |
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Moana | Self - Narrator (voice) | 1959-03-25 |
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Le Miroir à deux faces | docteur Bosc | 1958-10-15 |
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Le Dos au mur | Jacques Decrey | 1958-03-07 |
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Le septième ciel | Maurice Portal | 1958-03-05 |
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Les Marines | Récitant (voice) | 1957-01-01 |
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Méfiez-vous fillettes | Marcel Palmer | 1957-07-04 |
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L'homme au parapluie | Grégory Black | 1956-03-10 |
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House of Secrets | Julius Pindar | 1956-10-23 |
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La Meilleure Part | Gérard Bailly | 1955-12-30 |
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Les héros sont fatigués | Villeterre | 1955-09-12 |
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L'amante di Paride | Napoleon Bonaparte (segment: Napoleon and Josephine) | 1954-12-24 |
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I cavalieri dell'illusione | Napoleon Bonaparte | 1954-12-24 |
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They Who Dare | Captain George Two | 1954-02-02 |
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La donna del fiume | Enzo Cinti | 1954-12-29 |
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Father Brown | Inspector Dubois | 1954-06-08 |
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Horizons sans fin | (voice) | 1953-04-26 |
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The Sword and the Rose | Dauphin of France | 1953-07-23 |
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Sea Devils | Napoleon | 1953-04-12 |
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The Heart of the Matter | Yusef | 1953-11-03 |
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Le Costaud des Batignolles | Narrator (voice) | 1952-04-30 |
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Sans laisser d'adresse | Un journaliste | 1951-01-17 |
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La nuit est mon royaume | Lionel Moreau | 1951-08-09 |
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Garou Garou, le passe-muraille | Maurice | 1951-04-06 |
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La Belle que voilà | Bruno | 1950-04-21 |
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La Souricière | (uncredited) | 1950-01-27 |
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Du Guesclin | Le Dauphin | 1949-06-03 |
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Le Secret de Mayerling | (uncredited) | 1949-05-07 |
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Jo la Romance | Roland Grenier | 1949-03-04 |
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Antoine et Antoinette | Le client galant | 1947-09-27 |
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Les Petits Riens | Philinte | 1941-04-11 |
