Charles Denner (29 May 1926 – 10 September 1995) was a French actor born to a Jewish family in

Tarnów Tarnów () is a city in southeastern Poland with 105,922 inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of 269,000 inhabitants. The city is situated in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship. It is a major rail junction, located on the strategic east– ...

, Poland. During his 30-year career he worked with some of France's greatest directors of the time, including

Louis Malle Louis Marie Malle (; 30 October 1932 – 23 November 1995) was a French film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in both French cinema and Hollywood. Described as "eclectic" and "a filmmaker difficult to pin down", Malle made document ...

Claude Chabrol Claude Henri Jean Chabrol (; 24 June 1930 – 12 September 2010) was a French film director and a member of the French New Wave (''nouvelle vague'') group of filmmakers who first came to prominence at the end of the 1950s. Like his colleagues an ...

Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French and Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as ...

Costa-Gavras Konstantinos "Kostas" Gavras (; born 12 February 1933), known professionally as Costa-Gavras, is a Greek-French film director, screenwriter, and producer who lives and works in France. He is known for political films, such as the political thril ...

Claude Lelouch Claude Barruck Joseph Lelouch (; born 30 October 1937) is a French film director, writer, cinematographer, actor and producer. Lelouch grew up in an Algerian Jewish family. He emerged as a prominent director in the 1960s. Lelouch gained critical ...

and

François Truffaut François Roland Truffaut ( , ; ; 6 February 1932 – 21 October 1984) was a French filmmaker, actor, and critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. He came under the tutelage of film critic Andre Bazin as a ...

, who gave him two of his most memorable roles, as Fergus in '' The Bride Wore Black'' (1968) and as Bertrand Morane in '' The Man Who Loved Women'' (1977).

Early life

Charles Denner was born in 1926 to a Jewish family in the city of

in south-eastern

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. When he was four, they emigrated to France. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, his family took refuge in

Brive-la-Gaillarde Brive-la-Gaillarde (; Limousin dialect of ), commonly known as simply Brive, is a commune of France. It is a sub-prefecture and the largest city of the Corrèze department. It has around 46,000 inhabitants, while the population of the aggl ...

, where they were helped by Rabbi David Feuerwerker. Denner served as a

Free French Free France () was a resistance government claiming to be the legitimate government of France following the dissolution of the Third French Republic, Third Republic during World War II. Led by General , Free France was established as a gover ...

partisan in the Vercors mountains and destroyed a

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

SS truck with a

grenade A grenade is a small explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a Shell (projectile), shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A mod ...

; he was wounded and later received the

Croix de Guerre The (, ''Cross of War'') is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was first awarded during World ...

for this operation. Passionate about theatre from his childhood, Denner became a student of Charles Dullin, a famous theatre teacher of his time, under whose guidance he remained until 1945. Another great figure of French theatre, Jean Vilar, impressed by Denner's performance at '' Les mamelles de Tirésias'' (''The Breasts of Tiresias''), called him four years after he left Vilar to join the Théâtre National Populaire (TNP). It was there that he gave some of his earliest stage performances, in plays such as Heinrich von Kleist's '' Prinz Friedrich von Homburg'' and Alfred de Musset's '' Lorenzaccio'', among others.

Career

In 1955, director

Yves Allégret Yves Allégret (13 October 1905 – 31 January 1987) was a French film director, often working in the film noir genre. He was born in Asnières-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine and died in Paris. He was an assistant to film directors such as his brothe ...

offered Denner a small role in ''La Meilleure part'' (''The Best Part''), thus introducing him for the first time to cinema audiences. Two years later, in 1957, he secured another secondary role in Louis Malle's legendary '' Elevator to the Gallows'', alongside

Jeanne Moreau Jeanne Moreau (; 23 January 1928 – 31 July 2017) was a French actress, singer, screenwriter, director, and socialite. She made her theatrical debut in 1947, and established herself as one of the leading actresses of the Comédie-Française. Mo ...

, a co-performer of his from the days of the TNP. In 1962

wanted to film

Jean Giraudoux Hippolyte Jean Giraudoux (; ; 29 October 1882 – 31 January 1944) was a French novelist, essayist, diplomat and playwright. He is considered among the most important French dramatists of the period between World War I and World War II. His wo ...

's play ''Pour Lucrèce'' starring Denner along with

Sami Frey Sami Frey (born Sami Frei; 13 October 1937) is a French actor of Algerian and Italian descent. Among the films he starred in are '' En compagnie d'Antonin Artaud'' (1993), in which he portrays French poet and playwright Antonin Artaud, and '' Ba ...

and

Michel Piccoli Jacques Daniel Michel Piccoli (27 December 1925 – 12 May 2020) was a French actor, producer and film director with a career spanning 70 years. He was lauded as one of the greatest French character actors of his generation who played a wide vari ...

, but when cast and crew had already been assembled he called off the shoot on the first day of filming after a prolonged downpour caused a long delay.Witt, Michael (1958), "Unfinished Business: Godard, Cinema and Theatre in the 1960s" in James Fenwick, Kieran Foster, David Eldridge (eds.), ''Shadow Cinema: The Historical and Production Contexts of Unmade Films'', pp. 76-80, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2020 (ISBN 9781501351600). In 1963 Denner was offered his first leading role by

in '' Landru'', a film considered by many as his greatest on-screen performance. Despite his growing recognition on the big screen, the stage remained his true passion. He gave his most memorable performances in plays such as Molière's '' Les Fourberies de Scapin'' (Scapin's Schemings) and Brecht's '' Drums in the Night''.

Death

On 10 September 1995 Denner died of pneumonia in

Dreux Dreux () is a Communes of France, commune in the Eure-et-Loir Departments of France, department in northern France. Geography Dreux lies on the small river Blaise (river), Blaise, a tributary of the Eure (river), Eure, about 35 km north of Cha ...

, France.

Filmography

References

External links

*
Charles Denner - All Things Denner
{{DEFAULTSORT:Denner, Charles 1926 births 1995 deaths 20th-century Polish Jews Deaths from pneumonia in France 20th-century French male actors French male stage actors French male film actors People from Tarnów Male actors from Lesser Poland Voivodeship People from Eure-et-Loir Actors from Centre-Val de Loire Polish emigrants to France Naturalized citizens of France Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 (France)