profile

    Jaque Catelain

    1897-02-09 (127 years old) in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Yvelines, France

    Jaque Catelain was a French actor who came to prominence in silent films of the 1920s, and who continued acting in films and on stage until the 1950s. He also wrote and directed two silent films himself and was a capable artist and musician. He had a close association with the director Marcel L'Herbier. He was born as Jacques Guérin-Castelain in Saint-Germain-en-Laye. His father was then the mayor and also moved in literary and theatrical circles, which allowed the young Jacques to encounter many famous names in his childhood. He showed early enthusiasm for the arts and music, and at the age of 16 he entered the Académie Julian in Paris to study fine arts. With the outbreak of war in the following year, he changed direction and chose to study acting at the Conservatoire, enrolling in the class of Paul Mounet, before being mobilised into the artillery. In 1914 Catelain met Marcel L'Herbier, then a writer and critic, who became a major influence on his life and career, and with whom he formed a lifelong friendship. When L'Herbier began directing films in 1917, Catelain became his leading man of choice and starred in twelve of his silent films, starting with Le Torrent, and they made Catelain into a leading star who was in demand to appear in foreign films as well as in productions of other French directors. In 1925 he was offered a seven-year contract by MGM to work in America, but he turned this down. Jaque Catelain's activities in this period extended beyond acting. When Marcel L'Herbier set up his own production company Cinégraphic in 1922, its first project became Le Marchand de plaisirs which Catelain directed as well as acting a double role in it. In the following year he wrote and directed La Galerie des monstres (1923/24). Both films were successful enough to cover their costs. He devised controversial make-up for some of the actors in L'Inhumaine, and his artistic skills were put to further use in two set designs for L'Argent. As a pianist he would sometimes step in to provide improvised accompaniment for previews of L'Herbier's films. Catelain successfully made the transition from silent to sound films, starring in L'Herbier's L'Enfant de l'amour (1929), but during the 1930s he took fewer leading film roles and started to act in the theatre. In February 1933 he married Suzanne Vial, a friend since childhood who had become a production assistant to L'Herbier in the 1920s and continued working with him until 1944. Soon afterwards in 1933/1934 he was employed by the daily newspaper Le Journal to go to Hollywood to carry out a series of interviews with leading personalities such as Chaplin, Stroheim and Sternberg. In May 1940, Catelain left France for a four-month theatrical tour of South America, but within a month France was occupied by the Germans and his absence lasted for six years. In Buenos Aires he became so ill with pneumonia that he was given the last rites, but he recovered and went to Canada for the next three years for work in the theatre and propaganda broadcasts. In 1943 he was invited to Hollywood and remained there for a further three years. He returned to Paris in 1946, and resumed an occasional career in films, appearing in minor roles in three of Jean Renoir's films in the 1950s. In 1950, he published a biography and appreciation of the work of Marcel L'Herbier. Catelain died in Paris in 1965.

    Movies

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    The Doctor's Horrible Experiment
    66 %|Jul 4, 1960
    TV Movie, Science Fiction, Horror
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    French Cancan
    71.57 %|Apr 27, 1955
    Comedy, Drama, Romance, Music
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    The Last Days of Pompeii
    48 %|Mar 2, 1950
    History, Drama
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    Love and Companionship
    0 %|Jan 27, 1950
    Comedy
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    Stolen Affections
    0 %|Nov 5, 1948
    Drama
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    Comedy of Happiness
    64 %|Dec 23, 1940
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    La Mode rêvée
    0 %|Jan 28, 1940
    Comedy
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    Cordial Agreement
    52 %|Apr 20, 1939
    History, Drama
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    Adrienne Lecouvreur
    50 %|Oct 28, 1938
    Drama
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    Escadrille of Chance
    0 %|Jun 29, 1938
    Comedy
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    The Woman Thief
    0 %|Mar 30, 1938
    Drama
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    La Marseillaise
    69.03 %|Feb 10, 1938
    History, Drama
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    The Tomboy
    36 %|Feb 21, 1936
    Drama, Romance
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    The Imperial Road
    40 %|Feb 15, 1935
    Comedy, Drama
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    Le Bonheur
    69.06 %|Sep 15, 1934
    Comedy, Drama, Romance
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    Dream Castle
    65 %|Dec 8, 1933
    Comedy
    actor
    Monsieur de Pourceaugnac
    0 %|Oct 16, 1932
    poster
    The Dream
    0 %|Jul 22, 1931
    Drama
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    Illegitimate Child
    60 %|Feb 3, 1930
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    Princely Nights
    0 %|Oct 7, 1929
    Drama
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    La vocation
    0 %|Jun 28, 1929
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    The West
    0 %|Sep 26, 1928
    War, Drama
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    Little Devil May Care
    63 %|Mar 3, 1928
    Drama
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    Apaches of Paris
    0 %|Dec 17, 1927
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    Love's Springtime
    0 %|Nov 24, 1927
    Romance
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    Le Vertige
    63 %|Jul 5, 1926
    Drama
    actor
    The Knight of the Rose
    65 %|Dec 9, 1925
    Comedy, Drama
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    Le prince charmant
    0 %|Mar 27, 1925
    poster
    L'Inhumaine
    67.96000000000001 %|Dec 12, 1924
    Drama, Science Fiction
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    The Gallery of Monsters
    80 %|Sep 23, 1924
    Drama
    actor
    Le marchand de plaisirs
    0 %|Apr 27, 1923
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    The Secret Spring
    60 %|Jan 1, 1923
    Mystery, History, Crime
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    Don Juan et Faust
    0 %|Oct 7, 1922
    Drama
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    El Dorado
    65 %|Oct 28, 1921
    Drama
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    Prometheus, Banker
    57 %|May 11, 1921
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    The Man of the Sea
    64 %|Dec 3, 1920
    Drama
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    Le Carnaval des vérités
    0 %|Jun 4, 1920
    Drama
    poster
    Le Bercail
    62 %|Nov 28, 1919
    Drama
    actor
    Rose-France
    82 %|Jun 27, 1919
    Drama
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    The Blindness of Youth
    0 %|Nov 30, 1917

    Series