“Forgotten Hollywood”- France’s Favorite Son Passes Away…

Posted on February 16, 2015 by raideoman1 | No Comments

Manny P. here…

3245ea70   An actor who followed in the footsteps of French movie stars Maurice Chevalier and Charles Boyer has died. Louis Jourdan (left) was known for his suave roles in The Paradine Case, Letter from an Unknown Woman, Madame Bovary, Three Coins in the FountainCan-Can, The V.I.P.s, and Octopussy. Gigi made him an international star.

   His striking good looks helped get him acting jobs, including his film debut, Le Corsaire, with Boyer in 1938. During the German occupation of France, he was forced into a labor gang, cutting wood and digging ditches. Assigned to make cinematic propaganda for the Nazis, he escaped and joined the French underground.

Gigi'58   Considered the last French actor from Hollywood’s Golden Age, he romanced Joan Fontaine, Jennifer Jones, Grace Kelly, and Shirley MacLaine in films during the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s. Jourdan also collaborated with motion picture icons, such  as David O. Selznick, Alfred Hitchcock, Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra, Gregory Peck, Leslie Caron, Richard Burton, and Roger Moore.

   Jourdan’s career reached its peak in 1957 with the Alan Jay Lerner-Frederick Loewe musical, Gigi, which won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture. At first, Jourdan protested that he couldn’t sing and wasn’t right for the role. Lerner and Loewe persisted, and they gave him the title song, which required little vocalizing.              LESLIE CARON / LOUIS JOURDAN ——->

   He received a Chevalier de la Legion d’honneur in 2010. The dashing Louis Jourdan was 93.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

This entry was posted on Monday, February 16th, 2015 at 11:09 pm and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.


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