Gérard Oury
Gérard Oury (born Max-Gérard Houry Tannenbaum; 29 April 1919 – 20 July 2006) was a French film director, actor and writer. He is best known for a number of comedies he directed and co-wrote between the 1960s and 1980s, most notably The Sucker (1965), Don't Look Now... We're Being Shot At! (1966), The Brain (1969), The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob (1973), and Ace of Aces (1982).
Max-Gérard Houry-Tannenbaum was the only son of Serge Tannenbaum, a violinist of Russian-Jewish origin, and French Jewish Marcelle Houry, a journalist and art critic. Tannenbaum was absent from the life of Oury and he was raised in an unobservant house of his mother and maternal grandmother Berthe Goldner. Oury studied at the Lycée Janson de Sailly and then at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art. He became a member of the Comédie-Française before World War II, but fled with all his family (mother, grandmother and unofficial wife, actress Jacqueline Roman) to Switzerland to escape the anti-Jewish persecutions by the Vichy government. When in 1942 his daughter Danièle Thompson was born, his fatherhood was concealed, to avoid her classification as a Jew.
After 1945 he returned to the liberated Paris and restarted his career as an actor, performing in the theatre and in supporting roles in the cinema. Oury became a movie director in 1959 (The Itchy Palm) and gained his first success in 1961 with Crime Does Not Pay (Le crime ne paie pas).
Pairing André Bourvil and Louis de Funès as a comic duo, he burst into commercial filmmaking with 1965's The Sucker (Le corniaud). The film was entered into the 4th Moscow International Film Festival. The following year, Don't Look Now... We're Being Shot At! (La Grande Vadrouille) was even more successful, attracting the largest audiences ever in France (17.27 million admissions). This box-office record stood for decades, only surpassed in 1997 by Titanic from James Cameron.
Oury shot the 1969 comedy Le Cerveau (The Brain) in English, starring David Niven in the lead role as a criminal mastermind.
With actress Jacqueline Roman, he was the father of French writer Danièle Thompson and grandfather of actor/writer Christopher Thompson. He lived together with the French actress Michèle Morgan for the second half of his life. He died aged 87 in Saint-Tropez on 20 July 2006.
Source: Article "Gérard Oury" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.
Photos
Movies (60)
Les Rois de la comédie
2023 · Self (archive footage)
Belmondo: The Incorrigible
2022
À la recherche de... Pierre Richard
2017 · Self - Actor, director, producer (archive footage)
Sur la route de la grande vadrouille
2016 · Self (archive footage)
Louis de Funès, l'homme qui a passé le mur du son
2013 · Self (archive footage)
La Folle Heure des grandis
2002 · Self
Le Schpountz
1999 · Director
The Mirror Has Two Faces
1996 · Original Story
Ghost with Driver
1996 · Director
The Thirst for Gold
1993 · Director, Writer
Vanille fraise
1989 · Director, Writer
Levy & Goliath
1987 · Screenplay, Director
A Man and a Woman: 20 Years Later
1986 · Un spectateur de '40 ans déjà'
The Vengeance of the Winged Serpent
1984 · Director, Writer
Ace of Aces
1982 · Director, Writer
Umbrella Coup
1980 · Director, Writer
Out of It
1978 · Director, Writer
Et vive la liberté !
1978 · Idea
The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob
1973 · Director, Screenplay
Delusions of Grandeur
1971 · Director, Writer
The Brain
1969 · Director, Writer
Don't Look Now... We're Being Shot At!
1966 · Director, Screenplay
The Sucker
1965 · Director, Screenplay
The Prize
1963 · Claude Marceau
Crime Does Not Pay
1962 · Director, Scenario Writer
The Menace
1961 · The Doctor, Director, Screenplay
The Itchy Palm
1960 · Cameo Appearance (uncredited), Screenplay, Director
Come Dance with Me!
1959 · Writer
Witness in the City
1959 · Screenplay
The Four of Moana
1959 · Self - Narrator (voice)
The Journey
1959 · Teklel Hafouli
The Mirror Has Two Faces
1958 · docteur Bosc, Writer
Back to the Wall
1958 · Jacques Decrey
Seventh Heaven
1958 · Maurice Portal
Young Girls Beware
1957 · Marcel Palmer
The Marines
1957 · Récitant (voice)
House of Secrets
1956 · Julius Pindar
L'homme au parapluie
1956 · Grégory Black
The Best Part
1955 · Gérard Bailly
Heroes and Sinners
1955 · Villeterre
Woman of the River
1954 · Enzo Cinti
Loves of Three Queens
1954 · Napoleon Bonaparte (segment: Napoleon and Josephine)
The Fate of Two Queens
1954 · Napoleon Bonaparte
Father Brown
1954 · Inspector Dubois
They Who Dare
1954 · Captain George Two
The Heart of the Matter
1953 · Yusef
The Sword and the Rose
1953 · Dauphin of France
Endless Horizons
1953 · (voice)
Sea Devils
1953 · Napoleon
Le Costaud des Batignolles
1952 · Narrator (voice)
The Night Is My Kingdom
1951 · Lionel Moreau
Mr. Peek-a-Boo
1951 · Maurice
Without Leaving an Address
1951 · Un journaliste
Here Is the Beauty
1950 · Bruno
Sorceror
1950 · (uncredited)
Du Guesclin
1949 · Le Dauphin
The Secret of Mayerling
1949 · (uncredited)
Jo la Romance
1949 · Roland Grenier
Antoine & Antoinette
1947 · Le client galant
Little Nothings
1941 · Philinte
TV shows (15)
Vivement dimanche
1998 · Self
Sacrée soirée
1987 · Self
Nulle part ailleurs
1987 · Self
Matin Bonheur
1987 · Self
Champs-Elysées
1982 · Self
Ciné regards
1978 · Self
Système 2
1975 · Self
Les Rendez-vous du dimanche
1975 · Self
Apostrophes
1975 · Self
Spécial cinéma
1974 · Self
Le Grand Échiquier
1972 · Self, Self - Main Guest
Samedi soir
1971 · Self
À bout portant
1968 · Self
New Reports from France
1964 · Director
Cinépanorama
1956 · Self