Gérard Oury

• Métier : réalisateur
• Signe : Taureau
• Date de naissance : mardi 29 avril 1919 (age: 87 ans)
• Date de décès : mercredi 19 juillet 2006

Gérard Oury was born on April 29, 1919 in Paris. He enrolled at the conservatory in 1938 before becoming a boarder at the Comédie-Française in 1939. Of Jewish origin, he left France in 1940 with his partner, the actress Jacqueline Roman. He did not recognize his daughter (director Danièle Thompson) in 1942 in order to protect her from anti-Jewish measures. While in Marseille, film legend Raimu supports him and plays his first roles in cinema. In 1949, he kissed Michèle Morgan in the film La Belle que Voilà. Gérard seduced her in 1958 and the couple remained united until the death of the actor in 2006.

In 1959, Gérard made his first film: The Hot Hand. The success will not be there until three years later with Le Crime does not pay where Louis de Funès and Michèle Morgan respond. The following year, the comedy Le Corniaud, which pitted Funès against Bourvil, was a huge box office success. But it was not in 1966 that Gérard was truly consecrated with La Grande Vadrouille, a cult film which recounts the occupation of 1942 in an incongruous way. Gérard then continued his collaboration with Louis de Funès: The Adventures of Rabbi Jacob and La Folie des grandeurs are re-broadcast without the public ever getting tired of them.

In 1993, the director received an Honorary Cesar for his entire career. When he died in 2006, the biggest names in French cinema, including Belmondo and Lelouch paid a striking tribute to this essential character of the Seventh art.