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Jean-Alexis Moncorgé, known as Jean Gabin (French: [ʒɑ̃ gabɛ̃]; 17 May 1904 – 15 November 1976), was a French actor and singer. Considered a key figure in French cinema, he starred in several classic films, including Pépé le Moko (1937), La grande illusion (1937), Le Quai des brumes (1938), La bête humaine (1938), Le jour se lève (1939), and Le plaisir (1952). During his career, he twice won the Silver Bear for Best Actor from the Berlin International Film Festival and the Volpi Cup for Best Actor from the Venice Film Festival, respectively. Gabin was made a member of the Légion d'honneur in recognition of the important role he played in French cinema.
Born
Jean-Alexis Moncorgé
Died
Years active
1928–1976
Spouse(s)
Gaby Basset (1925–30)
Suzanne Marguerite Jeanne Mauchain (1933–39)
Dominique Fournier (1949–76)
Gabin was born Jean-Alexis Moncorgé in Paris, the son of Madeleine Petit and Ferdinand Moncorgé, a cafe owner and cabaret entertainer whose stage name was Gabin,[1][2] which is a first name in French. He grew up in the village of Mériel in the Seine-et-Oise (now Val-d'Oise) département, about 22 mi (35 km) north of Paris. He attended the Lycée Janson de Sailly. Gabin left school early, and worked as a laborer until the age of 19 when he entered show business with a bit part in a Folies Bergère production. He continued performing in a variety of minor roles before going into the military.
After completing his military service in the Fusiliers marins, he returned to the entertainment business, working under the stage name of Jean Gabin at whatever was offered in the Parisian music halls and operettas, imitating the singing style of Maurice Chevalier, which was the rage at the time. He was part of a troupe that toured South America, and upon returning to France found work at the Moulin Rouge. His performances started getting noticed, and better stage roles came along that led to parts in two silent films in 1928.
Two years later Gabin made the transition to sound films in a 1930 Pathé Frères production, Chacun sa chance. Playing secondary roles, he made more than a dozen films over the next four years, including films directed by Maurice and Jacques Tourneur. But he only gained real recognition for his performance in Maria Chapdelaine, a 1934 production directed by Julien Duvivier. He was then cast as a romantic hero in the 1936 war drama La Bandera; this second Duvivier-directed film established him as a major star. The next year he teamed up with Duvivier again in the highly successful Pépé le Moko. Its popularity brought Gabin international recognition. That same year he starred in Jean Renoir's La Grande Illusion, an antiwar film that ran at a New York City theatre for an unprecedented six months. This was followed by another of Renoir's major works, La Bête Humaine (The Human Beast), a film noir tragedy based on the novel by Émile Zola and starring Gabin and Simone Simon, as well as Le Quai Des Brumes (Port of Shadows), one of director Marcel Carné's classics of poetic realism. His rugged charisma could be compared with Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney. But he was the king of ‘cinematic cool’ even before the rise of those Hollywood stars.[3]
He divorced his second wife in 1939.
In the late 1930s Gabin was flooded with offers from Hollywood, but turned them all down until the outbreak of World War II. After the German occupation of France in 1940, he joined Renoir and Duvivier in the United States. During his time in Hollywood, Gabin began a romance with actress Marlene Dietrich that lasted until 1948.[4] His films in America—Moontide (1942) and The Impostor (1944), the latter with Duvivier—were not successful.
Undaunted, Gabin joined General Charles de Gaulle's Free French Forces and earned the Médaille militaire and a Croix de Guerre for his wartime valor fighting with the Allies in North Africa. Following D-Day, Gabin served with the 2nd armored division that liberated Paris.
In 1945 Carné chose Gabin to star in the film Gates of the Night with Dietrich as his co-star. She disliked the screenplay and feared her German accent would not go over well with postwar French audiences. When she withdrew from the project, Gabin followed suit, leading to a falling out with Carné. He found a French producer and director willing to cast him and Dietrich together, but the film, Martin Roumagnac, was not a success and their personal relationship soon ended. In 1948 Gabin starred in René Clément's poetic realist film The Walls of Malapaga (Au-delà des grilles), which won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Picture but garnered little recognition for Gabin. In 1949 he starred in his only role in legitimate theatre in Henri Bernstein's La Soif. It ran in Paris for six months, with Gabin critically praised as "a first-rate stage actor." Despite this recognition, his subsequent films did not do well at the French box office, and the next five years brought repeated failures.
Gabin's career seemed headed for oblivion until the 1954 film Touchez pas au grisbi (Don't Touch the Loot), directed by Jacques Becker, earned him critical acclaim. The film was very profitable internationally. He then worked once again with Renoir in French Cancan, with María Félix and Françoise Arnoul. Gabin played Georges Simenon's detective Jules Maigret in three films in 1958, 1959 and 1963. Over the next 20 years, he made almost 50 more films, most of them very successful commercially and critically, including many for Gafer Films, his production partnership with fellow actor Fernandel. His co-stars included such leading figures of postwar cinema as Brigitte Bardot (En cas de malheur), Alain Delon (Le Clan des Siciliens, Mélodie en sous-sol and Deux hommes dans la ville), Jean-Paul Belmondo (Un singe en hiver) and Louis de Funès (Le Tatoué).
Gabin died of leukemia at the American Hospital of Paris, in the Parisian suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine. His body was cremated, and—with full military honours—his ashes were scattered at sea from a military ship.
Year
Title
Role
Director
Notes
1930
Marcel Grivot
French-language version of Headfirst into Happiness
Michel Du Lac
Short
With Raymond Dandy Alternative title Ohé les valises
Short
With Raymond Dandy Alternative title Les Lions
1931
Inspector Jacques Miral
Henri Debain
Georges Vinter [fr]
Serial film with four episodes
With René Navarre Based on a novel by Arthur Bernède
Bob
Jean Cordier
Robert Nourry
French-language version of Gloria
Jean
Jean Godard
1932
Martousse
Based on a play by Tristan Bernard and Charles-Henry Hirsch
Fricot
With Fernandel and Raimu
Based on a play by Georges Courteline
Joe Greer
Jean Daumery,
(uncredited: Howard Hawks)
French-language version of The Crowd Roars
The Captain
With Madeleine Renaud and Pierre Blanchar
Based on a play by Marcel Achard
Charles
Hanns Schwarz,
Max de Vaucorbeil
French-language version of Gypsies of the Night
1933
Jean
Jean Godard
Shot 1931
Pedro Savedra
With Brigitte Helm
French-language version of The Star of Valencia
Pierre Lavernay
With Brigitte Helm
French-language version of Happy Days in Aranjuez
Charles Boulla
With Michel Simon and Peter Lorre
Allan Mac Allan
With Madeleine Renaud and Gustaf Gründgens
French-language version of The Tunnel
1934
François Paradis
With Madeleine Renaud and Jean-Pierre Aumont
Adaptation of Louis Hémon's novel Maria Chapdelaine
NBR Award 1935
Jean
With Josephine Baker
1935
With Harry Baur and Edwige Feuillère
La Bandera (Escape from Yesterday)
Pierre Gilleth
With Annabella
Adaptation of Pierre Mac Orlan's novel La Bandera
Georges
With Annabella and Fernand Gravey French-language version of Variety
1936
Jeannot
With Charles Vanel and Viviane Romance
Pepel Wasska
With Louis Jouvet
Adaptation of Maxim Gorky's The Lower Depths
Louis Delluc Prize 1937
1937
Pépé le Moko
Remade twice in the US: Algiers (1938) and Casbah (1948)
Lieutenant Maréchal
With Erich von Stroheim, Pierre Fresnay and Marcel Dalio
NBR Award 1938
Nick Dange
With Jean-Pierre Aumont Based on a play by Henri Bernstein
Lucien Bourrache
Adaptation of a novel by André Beucler
1938
Jean
With Michèle Morgan, Michel Simon and Pierre Brasseur
Based on a novel by Pierre Mac Orlan
Louis Delluc Prize 1939
La Bête humaine (The Human Beast)
Jacques Lantier
With Simone Simon
Adaptation of Émile Zola's novel La Bête humaine
1939
Trott Lennart
With Michèle Morgan
Adaptation of a novel by Jean Martet
Le jour se lève (Daybreak)
François
With Arletty and Jules Berry
Remade in the US as The Long Night (1947) starring Henry Fonda
1941
Captain André Laurent
With Michèle Morgan and Madeleine Renaud
Adaptation of a novel by Roger Vercel
1942
Bobo
American film
With Ida Lupino and Claude Rains
Adaptation of a novel by Willard Robertson
1944
Clement / Maurice Lafarge
American film
1946
Martin Roumagnac (The Room Upstairs)
Martin Roumagnac
With Marlene Dietrich
Adaptation of a novel by Pierre-René Wolf
1947
Pierre Lussac / Miroir
1949
Pierre Arrignon
With Isa Miranda
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
1950
Henri Chatelard
Adaptation of a novel by Georges Simenon
Carlo Bacchi
1951
Victor
Based on a play by Henri Bernstein
Raymond Pinsard
Georges Lacombe
Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the 12th Venice International Film Festival
1952
La Vérité sur Bébé Donge (The Truth About Bebe Donge)
François Donge
(segment "La Maison Tellier")
With Danielle Darrieux
Adaptation of a novel by Georges Simenon
Le Plaisir (House of Pleasure)
Joseph Rivet
With Danielle Darrieux, Madeleine Renaud and Pierre Brasseur
Ananthology film based on three stories by Guy de Maupassant
La Minute de vérité (The Moment of Truth)
Dr. Pierre Richard
With Michèle Morgan and Daniel Gélin
1953
Antonio Sanna
With Silvana Pampanini and Serge Reggiani
Pierre Fernand Ruffin
Georges Lacombe
With Madeleine Robinson
Jacques Ledru / Martin Schmidt
With Nadia Gray Adaptation of a novel by Pierre Nord
1954
Touchez pas au grisbi (Don't Touch the Loot)
Max
With Jeanne Moreau and Lino Ventura
Adaptation of a novel by Albert Simonin
Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the 15th Venice International Film Festival
Victor Le Garrec
With Arletty and Folco Lulli
Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the 15th Venice International Film Festival
1955
Marshal Jean Lannes
Cameo
Razzia sur la chnouf (Raid on the Drug Ring)
Henri Ferré
With Magali Noël, Marcel Dalio and Lino Ventura
Based on a novel by Auguste Le Breton
Henri Danglard
With María Félix and Françoise Arnoul
Captain Lequévic
With Henri Vidal
Judge Julien Lamy
Adaptation of a novel by Gilbert Cesbron
Jean Chape
With Jeanne Moreau
Based on a novel by Georges Bayle
1956
Jean Viard
With Françoise Arnoul
Based on a novel by Serge Groussard
André Chatelin
Produced by Raymond Borderie (and others)
François Cardinaud
Adaptation of a novel by Georges Simenon
La Traversée de Paris (The Trip Across Paris)
Grandgil
With Bourvil and Louis de Funès
Commissaire Gallet
With Robert Hossein, Marina Vlady, Bernard Blier, Ulla Jacobsson and Lino Ventura
Adaptation of Dostoevsky's novel
1957
Dr. Laurent
Louis Bertain
With Annie Girardot and Lino Ventura
/ Adaptation of a novel by Auguste Le Breton
1958
With Annie Girardot and Lino Ventura
Adaptation of a novel by Georges Simenon
With Bernard Blier, Bourvil and Serge Reggiani
Adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel
Le désordre et la nuit (Night Affair)
Inspector Georges Vallois
With Danielle Darrieux and Nadja Tiller
Maître André Gobillot
With Brigitte Bardot
Adaptation of a novel by Georges Simenon
Noël Schoudler
With Pierre Brasseur and Bernard Blier
Adaptation of a novel by Maurice Druon
1959
Archimède le clochard (The Magnificent Tramp)
Archimède
With Bernard Blier
Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 9th Berlin International Film Festival[8]
Adaptation of a novel by Georges Simenon
Henri Neveux
Adaptation of a novel by René Lefèvre
1960
Le Baron de l'écluse (The Baron of the Locks)
Baron Jérôme Napoléon Anthoine
With Micheline Presle
Adaptation of a novel by Georges Simenon
Baptiste Talon
With Pierre Fresnay
Adaptation of a novel by René Fallet
1961
Émile Beaufort
With Bernard Blier
Adaptation of a novel by Georges Simenon
Le cave se rebiffe (The Counterfeiters of Paris)
Ferdinand Maréchal
With Martine Carol, Bernard Blier and Françoise Rosay
Adaptation of a novel by Albert Simonin
1962
Albert Quentin
With Jean-Paul Belmondo
Adaptation of Antoine Blondin's novel A Monkey in Winter
Richard Briand-Charmery
With Louis de Funès
Raymond Oliver as himself
1963
Mister Charles
With Alain Delon
Adaptation of a novel by Zekial Marko
Adaptation of a novel by Georges Simenon
1964
René Duchêne / Georges Baudin
With Liselotte Pulver, Mireille Darc and Philippe Noiret
Émile Malhouin
With Fernandel
1965
Léandre Brassac
With Lilli Palmer, Michèle Mercier and Robert Hossein
Adaptation of a novel by Bernard Clavel
1966
Paul Berger
With George Raft, Gert Fröbe, Mireille Darc and Nadja Tiller
Adaptation of a novel by Auguste Le Breton
Joseph Martin alias 'Tulipe'
With Liselotte Pulver and Curd Jürgens
1967
Denis Ferrand
With Robert Stack, Margaret Lee and Walter Giller
1968
Comissaire Louis Joss
Le tatoué (The Million Dollar Tattoo)
Count Enguerand
With Louis de Funès
1969
Albert Raynal
Adaptation of a novel by Roger Vrigny
Vittorio Manalese
With Alain Delon and Lino Ventura Score by Ennio Morricone Adaptation of a novel by Auguste Le Breton
1970
Auguste Maroilleur
1971
Julien Bouin
With Simone Signoret Adaptation of a novel by Georges Simenon
Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 21st Berlin International Film Festival[9]
Victor Ploubaz
Adaptation of a novel by René Fallet
1972
Commissaire Le Guen
With Bernard Blier, Fabio Testi and Uschi Glas
1973
Gaston Dominici
Based on the Dominici affair
Germain Cazeneuve
With Alain Delon, Michel Bouquet and Mimsy Farmer
Remade in the USA as Two Men in Town (2014) starring Forest Whitaker
1974
Judge Leguen
With Sophia Loren
Produced by Carlo Ponti
1976
L'Année sainte (Holy Year)
Max Lambert
with Jean-Claude Brialy and Danielle Darrieux
Joseph Harriss: "Jean Gabin: The Actor Who Was France." McFarland, Jefferson, NC 2018 ISBN 978-1-4766-7627-2
