Daniel Gélin

Daniel Gélin

Biography

Daniel Yves Alfred Gélin (19 May 1921 – 29 November 2002) was a French actor.

Gélin was born in Angers, Maine-et-Loire, the son of Yvonne (née Le Méner) and Alfred Ernest Joseph Gélin.

When he was ten, his family moved to Saint-Malo where Daniel went to college until he was expelled for 'uncouthness'. His father then found him a job in a shop that sold cans of salted cod. It was seeing the shooting of Marc Allégret's film Entrée des artistes that triggered his desire to go to Paris to train to be an actor. He trained at the Cours Simon in Paris before entering the Conservatoire national d'art dramatique. There he met Louis Jouvet and embarked on a theatrical career. He made his first film appearance in 1940 in Miquette and for several years was an extra or played small roles in French films. He appeared with Jean Gabin and Marlene Dietrich in Martin Roumagnac (1946).

He won his first leading role in Rendez-vous de juillet (1949). From that time, he went on to appear in more than 150 films, including Max Ophüls' films La Ronde (1950) and Le Plaisir (1952), Jacques Becker's Édouard et Caroline (1951), Sacha Guitry's films Si Versailles m'était conté (Royal Affairs in Versailles) (1954) and Napoléon (1955), Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), Jean Cocteau's Le Testament d'Orphée (1960), Le souffle au cœur (Murmur of the Heart) (1971), and La Nuit de Varennes (That Night in Varennes) (1982). He also wrote and directed one film, The Long Teeth, in 1952.

Gélin was a leading man in French cinema during the 1950s, but his career declined with the coming of the New Wave. He worked in theater for several years, but later found new success on screen as a character actor. He appeared extensively in French films and television productions from the 1970s until his death, often playing cynical characters or grumpy old men.

In 1946, Gélin married actress Danièle Delorme with whom he had a son, actor, director and producer Xavier Gélin. They divorced in 1954. While still married to Delorme, he had an affair with 17 year old model Marie Christine Schneider that produced a daughter, Maria Schneider. Due to his status as a married man, Gélin could not recognize Maria as his daughter. He visited the child several times but eventually severed his relationship with her mother. Maria Schneider and Daniel Gélin reconnected when she was sixteen and came to visit him. They remained in contact, although their relationship was irregular.

Gélin was married to model Sylvie Hirsch from 1954 until their divorce in 1968. This marriage produced three children, Pascal (who died aged one year), Fiona , and Manuel, the latter two also becoming actors. In 1973, he remarried to Lydie Zaks with whom he had a daughter, Laura.

Gélin died in Paris on 29 November 2002 of kidney failure.

Source: Article "Daniel Gélin" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Personal info

Gender

Male

Birthday

1921-05-19

Place of birth

Angers, Maine-et-Loire, France

Images

Cast

Mister Frost

Mister Frost

1990

6.10

Napoleon

Napoleon

1955

6.60

Le Plaisir

Le Plaisir

1952

7.58

Young Love

Young Love

1951

6.25

La Ronde

La Ronde

1950

7.32

On Trial

On Trial

1954

6.80

The Children

The Children

1985

5.90

Hitch-Hike

Hitch-Hike

1962

5.50

Obsession

Obsession

1997

4.00

Lovers' Net

Lovers' Net

1955

4.70

Black Sun

Black Sun

1966

4.00

Mirror

Mirror

1947

6.30

Killing Cars

Killing Cars

1986

3.20

The Sultans

The Sultans

1966

4.30

Dandin

Dandin

1988

4.40

Dirty Hands

Dirty Hands

1951

4.90

Les Bidochon

Les Bidochon

1996

3.20

Signé Furax

Signé Furax

1981

4.80

Blitz

Blitz

1985

2.00

Slogan

Slogan

1969

5.80

Lucrèce

Lucrèce

1943

4.00

La jalousie

La jalousie

1976

0.00

Pétition

Pétition

1987

0.00

Ariane

Ariane

1974

0.00

The Truce

The Truce

1968

0.00

Runaways

Runaways

1995

5.80

Miquette

Miquette

1940

0.00

The Slave

The Slave

1953

5.50

The Servant

The Servant

1970

6.00

La Discorde

La Discorde

1978

0.00

Les murs

Les murs

1964

0.00

Un delitto

Un delitto

1984

0.00