Gérard Oury


Gérard Oury 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, Don't [Look Now... We're Being Shot At!], The Brain, The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob, and Ace of Aces.

Life and career

Max-Gérard Houry-Tenenbaum was the only son of Serge Tenenbaum, a violinist of Russian-Jewish origin, and French Jewish Marcelle Houry, a journalist and art critic. Tenenbaum 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 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 and gained his first success in 1961 with Crime Does Not Pay.
Pairing André Bourvil and Louis de Funès as a comic duo, he burst into commercial filmmaking with 1965's The Sucker. The film was entered into the 4th Moscow International Film Festival. The following year, Don't Look Now... We're Being Shot At! was even more successful, attracting the largest audiences ever in France. This box-office record stood for decades, only surpassed in 1997 by Titanic from James Cameron.
Oury shot the 1969 comedy Le Cerveau 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.

Filmography

Actor
YearTitleRoleDirectorNotes
1942Les Petits RiensPhilinteRaymond Leboursier
1947Antoine and Antoinettea customerJacques Becker
1949Jo la RomanceRoland GrenierGilles Grangier
1949Du GuesclinCharles V of FranceBernard Delatour
1950La SouricièrePetit rôleHenri CalefUncredited
1950La Belle que voilàBrunoJean-Paul Le Chanois
1951Without Leaving an Addressa journalistJean-Paul Le Chanois
1951Mr. Peek-a-BooMauriceJean Boyer
1951The Night Is My KingdomLionel MoreauGeorges Lacombe
1952Le Costaud des BatignollesRécitant / NarratorGuy LacourtVoice
1953Endless HorizonsJean DrévilleVoice
1953Sea DevilsNapoleonRaoul Walsh
1953The Sword and the Rosethe DauphinKen Annakin
1953The Heart of the MatterYusefGeorge More O'Ferrall
1954They Who DareCaptain George TwoLewis Milestone
1954Father BrownInspector DuboisRobert Hamer
1954Loves of Three QueensNapoleon BonaparteMarc Allégret and Edgar G. Ulmer
1954The River GirlEnzo CintiMario Soldati
1954I cavalieri dell'illusioneNapoleone BonaparteMarc Allégret
1955The Heroes Are TiredVilleterreYves Ciampi
1956La Meilleure PartGérard Bailly - un ingénieurYves Allégret
1956House of SecretsJulius PindarGuy Green
1957Méfiez-vous fillettesMarcel PalmerYves Allégret
1958Le Septième CielMaurice PortalRaymond Bernard
1958Back to the WallJacques DecreyÉdouard Molinaro
1958Le Miroir à deux facesDoctor BoscAndré Cayatte
1959The JourneyTeklel HafouliAnatole Litvak
1960La Main chaudeCameo AppearanceGérard OuryUncredited
1961The MenaceLe docteurGérard Oury
1963The PrizeDoctor Claude MarceauMark Robson
1986A Man and a Woman: 20 Years LaterUn spectateur de '40 ans déjà'Claude LelouchUncredited
2003Là-haut, un roi au-dessus des nuagesLe général de La Motte-NoirePierre Schoendoerffer