Jaque Catelain, Acting - KorPlix:Korean Person Archives

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Jaque Catelain
Acting

Jaque Catelain
Known For
Acting
Birthday
1897-02-09,Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Yvelines, France
Gender
Male
Biography
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.

Filmography

Monsieur de Pourceaugnac

7

Monsieur de Pourceaugnac
1932-10-16

10

La vocation
1929-06-28

3.917

The Tomboy
1936-02-21

The Woman Thief

10

The Woman Thief
1938-03-30

The Inhuman Woman

6.853

The Inhuman Woman
1924-12-12

Escadrille of Chance

10

Escadrille of Chance
1938-06-29

Comedy of Happiness

7

Comedy of Happiness
1940-12-23

Cordial Agreement

6

Cordial Agreement
1939-04-20

6.737

El Dorado
1921-10-28

Love and Companionship

8

Love and Companionship
1950-01-27

Prometheus, Banker

6.2

Prometheus, Banker
1921-05-11

The Gallery of Monsters

7.778

The Gallery of Monsters
1924-09-23

Little Devil May Care

6.625

Little Devil May Care
1928-03-03

The Blindness of Youth

9

The Blindness of Youth
1917-11-30

The Knight of the Rose

7

The Knight of the Rose
1925-12-09

6.658

Le Bonheur
1934-09-15

The Secret Spring

8

The Secret Spring
1923-01-01

8.2

Rose-France
1919-06-27

8

The West
1928-09-26

6.333

Le Bercail
1919-11-28

Princely Nights

10

Princely Nights
1929-10-07

Illegitimate Child

7

Illegitimate Child
1930-02-03

8

La Mode rêvée
1940-01-28

The Imperial Road

6

The Imperial Road
1935-02-15

7.21

French Cancan
1955-04-09

Experiment in Evil

6.72

Experiment in Evil
1960-07-04

The Man of the Sea

5.962

The Man of the Sea
1920-12-03

10

The Dream
1931-07-22

The Last Days of Pompeii

5.333

The Last Days of Pompeii
1950-03-02

Le Carnaval des vérités

7

Le Carnaval des vérités
1920-06-04

Stolen Affections

7

Stolen Affections
1948-11-05

6

Le Vertige
1926-07-05

Don Juan et Faust

10

Don Juan et Faust
1922-10-07

Love's Springtime

9

Love's Springtime
1927-11-24

Adrienne Lecouvreur

5.667

Adrienne Lecouvreur
1938-10-28

Apaches of Paris

0

Apaches of Paris
1927-12-17

Le marchand de plaisirs

9

Le marchand de plaisirs
1923-04-27

La Marseillaise

6.833

La Marseillaise
1938-02-10

7

Dream Castle
1933-12-08

Le Prince charmant

7

Le Prince charmant
1925-03-27

In A Small Café

9

In A Small Café
1930-01-20

Les mousquetaires du roi

0

Les mousquetaires du roi
1951-01-01