Sami Frey

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BIRTHDAY

October 13, 1937

Paris, France

PROFESSIONS

Actor, Director

SOMETIMES CREDITED AS

Samuel Frei

BIOGRAPHY

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A handsome dark-haired French actor, Sami Frey began his career as a teen actor on stage and in features. His screen profile increased in tandem with the rise of the French New Wave and he enjoyed early success in Agnes Varda's "Cleo From 5 to 7/Cleo de 5 a 7" (1962) and Jean-Luc Godard's "Bande a Part/Band of Outsiders" (1964). A prolific actor with more than 50 films to his credit, Frey often was cast as the eccentric. During his long career, he worked for some of the leading filmmakers including Jean-Paul Rappeneau ("Les Marie de l'an II" 1971), Marguerite Duras ("Jaune le soleil" 1972) and Colinne Serreau ("Pourquoi Pas!" 1978). In 1984, Frey made his American film debut as the target for Diane Keaton's "The Little Drummer Girl". Bob Rafelson tapped him to play a suave entrepreneur whom both Debra Winger and Theresa Russell find attractive in the noirish "Black Widow" (1987). The actor also was impressive in a pivotal role as a French Zionist in the epic ABC miniseries "War and Remembrance" (1988). Frey has continued to appear onstage in France and more recently earned critical praise for his portrayal of poet Antonin Artaud in "My Life and Times with Antonin Artaud" (1993; released in the USA in 1995) and as a knight banished from court who finds romance with a peasant in "L'Amour Conjugal/Conjugal Love" (1995).

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