Oury, Gérard

(Max-Gérard Houry Tannenbaum / April 29, 1919, Paris, France - July 19, 2006, Saint-Tropez, Var, France)

   The son of a classical violinist father and a journalist mother who had many artist friends (painter Fou-jita drew her portrait), he was educated at Janson de Sailly High School. He wanted to be a journalist first but soon switched to acting. At age seventeen, he enrolled in the Cours Simon and two years later in the National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts. He made his debut at the Comédie-Française in Britannicus. During the occupation of France, he fled the country and settled in Geneva. Back in his na­tive country after the liberation, he landed a small part in Jacques Becker's Antoine et Antoinette / UK and USA: Antoine and Antoinette (1947). From 1947 to 1963, he played supporting roles in more than twenty pictures. He notably performed Napoléon Bonaparte twice in films (1953 Sea Devils, Raoul Walsh, USA; 1954 L'amante di Paride / UK: The Face That Launched a Thousand Ships / USA: Love of the Three Queens, Marc Allégret, Italy) and co-starred with Yul Brynner and Ingrid Bergman in Anatole Litvak's The Journey (USA, 1959) and with Paul New­man and Edward G. Robinson in Mark Robson's The Prize (USA, 1963). A film director since 1959, he shot the greatest box office hits of French cinema. After authoring two autobiographical books (1988 Mémoire d'Eléphant, Olivier Orban; 2001 Ma Grande Vadrouille, Plon), he made his last film appearance in Là-haut, un Roi au Dessus des Nuages / Là-haut (Pierre Schoendoerffer, 2003, shot in 2001). In 1977, he directed onstage the only play he wrote (Arrête ton Cinéma). His daughter, Danièle Thompson, is a screenwriter and film director.

 Filmography

        ◘ La Main chaude / La mano calda (also co-screenwriter, co-dialogist; France / Italy)

        ◘ La Menace / US TV: The Menace (also co-screenwriter, co-adapter)

        ◘ Le Crime ne paie pas / Il delitto non paga / UK: Gentle Art of Murder / USA: Crime Does Not Pay (four segments: "Le Masque", "L'Affaire Hugues", "L'Affaire Fenayrou", "L'Homme de l'Avenue"; France / Italy)

        ◘ Le Corniaud / Colpo grosso ma non troppo / UK and USA: The Sucker (also co-screenwriter, co-adapter; France / Italy)

        ◘ La Grande Vadrouille / Dont Look Now, We've Been Shot At / USA: Don't Look Now—We're Being Shot At (also screenwriter, co-adapter, France / UK)

1969 ◘ Le Cerveau / Il Cervello / USA: The Brain (also co-screenwriter, co-adapter, co-dialogist; France / Italy)

1971 ◘ La Folie des Grandeurs / Mani di grandezza / Delirios de grandeza / Die Dummen Streiche der Reiche / Don Louis der Grôssenwahnsinnige / UK and USA: Delusions of Grandeur (also co-screenwriter, co-adapter, co-dialogist; France / Italy / Spain / West Germany)

1973 ◘ Les Aventures de Rabbi Jacob / Le folli avventure di Rabbi Jacob / UK: The Adventures of Rabbi Jacob / USA: The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob (also co-screenwriter, co-dialogist; France / Italy)

1978 ◘ La Carapate / USA: Out of It (also co-screenwriter, co-dialogist)

1980 ◘ Le Coup du Parapluie (also co-screenwriter, co-dialogist)

1982 ◘ L'As des As / Das As der Asse (also co-screenwriter; France / West Germany)

1984 ◘ La Vengeance du Serpent à Plumes (also co-screenwriter; France / Mexico)

1987 ◘ Lévy et Goliath / USA: Levy and Goliath (also co-screenwriter)

1989 ◘ Vanille Fraise (also co-screenwriter)

1993 ◘ La Soif de l'Or (also co-screenwriter, co-dialogist)

1996 ◘ Fantôme avec Chauffeur

1999 ◘ Le Schpountz (also co-screenwriter, co-adapter)