Georges Chamarat

Georges Chamarat was one of the most celebrated stage actors in Paris of the 1940s and '50s, and made his mark on movies in more than 100 screen roles, comedic and dramatic alike. Born in Paris in 1901, Chamarat joined the Odeon National Theater at age 28 and moved to the Comédie-Française in 1946, where he became particularly well known for his portrayals of Arnolphe in School for Wives, among other comic roles associated with Molière. He made his first film appearance in 1939 and received his first screen credit the following year, as Alexis in Le President Haudcoeur. He went uncredited in Who Killed Santa Claus (1941) and but, starting with Peches de Jeunesse (1941), moved up to ever larger roles and star billing. Sometimes billed simply as "Chamarat," the actor played major roles in La Main du Diable (1943), Une Histoire d'Amour (1951), Coiffeur pour Dames (1952), Julietta (1953), Le Boulanger de Valorgue (1953), Le Printemps, L'Automne et L'Amour (1955), Fernandel the Dressmaker (1956), The Adventures of Arsene Lupin (1957), and Premier Mai (1958), squeezing in an appearance in Diabolique (1954) as Dr. Loisy amid those star turns. In 1960, Chamarat turned in an especially beguiling performance as the mysterious, old magician in Arthur Lubin's The Thief of Baghdad (1960) (a role especially devised for him) with his own separate costuming and makeup design and a separate credit at the end. He continued to get starring roles in movies into the early '60s with titles such as Au Coeur De La Ville (1962) and appeared in one major international production, Up From the Beach (1965), 20th Century Fox's sequel to The Longest Day. On five occasions, beginning in 1955, the Comédie-Française company visited the United States, which brought Chamarat to American stages in performances of Le Malade Imaginaire, Les Femmes Savantes, and Don Juan. On the occasion of its 1970 visit, the 69-year-old Chamarat displayed a healthy sense of the absurd in equating Molière's work with modern life, as well as a quick comic wit in tandem with his fellow performers Françoise Seigner and Jacques Charon. The actor's movie credits extended into the 1980s, including miniseries and made-for-TV features, his final screen appearance coming in 1981 with L'Enterrement de Monsieur Bouvet, just a year before his death at age 81.

~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide