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Social Class: Middle class; father hotel owner
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Death: 2015; aged 93
Louis Jourdan (born Louis Robert Gendre; June 19, 1921– February 14, 2015) was a French film and television actor.
He was known for his suave roles in Hollywood films, including Hitchcock’s The Paradine Case (1947), Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), Gigi (1958), The Best of Everything (1959), The V.I.P.s (1963) and Octopussy (1983).
He played Dracula in the 1977 BBC TV production Count Dracula.
Jourdan was born Louis Robert Gendre in Marseille, France, in 1921, one of three sons of Yvonne (née Jourdan) and Henry Gendre, a hotel owner.
Spotted By:
He was educated in France, Turkey, and the UK, and studied acting at the École Dramatique. While there, he began acting on the professional stage, where he was brought to the attention of director Marc Allégret, who hired him to work as assistant camera operator on Entrée des Artistes (The Curtain Rises).
Allegret then cast Jourdan in what should have been his first movie, Le Corsaire in 1939 opposite Charles Boyer. Filming was interrupted by the Second World War and was never resumed.
World War II
Jourdan was hired by Marcel L’Herbier to appear in La Comédie du bonheur (1940) in Rome. He was making Untel Père et Fils in that city when Italy declared war on France.
He returned to France, and appeared in Premier rendez-vous (1941) with Danielle Darrieux, shot in Paris. He spent a year on a work gang.
Jourdan was ordered to make German propaganda films, which he refused to do, and fled to join his family in unoccupied France.
He started making movies again, 10 films in 2 years.
They included several for Allegret: Parade en sept nuits (1941); L’Arlésienne (1942) with Raimu, The Beautiful Adventure (1942); Les Petites du quai aux fleurs (1944); Twilight (1944). He was in The Heart of a Nation (1943) with Raimu; La Vie de Bohème (1945).
His father was arrested by the Gestapo; months later he escaped, and joined the French Resistance, along with his family. “I was given work to do and I did it,” said Jourdan later. “I worked on illegal leaflets, helping to print and distribute them.”
After the liberation of France in 1945, he returned to Paris with his childhood sweetheart, Berthe Frédérique (nicknamed “Quique”). They married in 1946.
Hollywood Career: Selznick
Cited by author James McKay as the “epitome of the suave Continental,” Jourdan was spotted in French film by talent scout working for David O. Selznick, who offered the actor a contract in March 1946.
His first American film was The Paradine Case (1947) starring Gregory Peck. Hitchcock did not want Jourdan cast as the valet in the film.
He appeared in a theatre production of Ghosts in Los Angeles.
Jourdan frequently argued with Selznick, who put him on suspension for refusing roles.
Selznick announced Jourdan and Alida Valli for Rupert of Hentzau but the film was not made. Neither was Trilby which Selznick said Jourdan would appear in with Valli and Rossano Brazzi, or If This Be My Heart with Valli and Robert Mitchum.
With Joan Fontaine, Jourdan starred in the Max Ophüls Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948).
Enterprise borrowed him for No Minor Vices (1948), a box office flop. It was released by MGM, who borrowed Jourdan to appear in Madame Bovary (1949).
Selznick announced him for The Frenchman and the Bobbysoxer a sequel to The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, but it was not made. Selznick sold Jourdan for one film to Warner.
When all of Jourdan’s Hollywood films lost money, he decided to buy out his contract with Selznick for $50,000.
Post-Selznick
At 20th Century Fox, Jourdan played the lead in remake of Bird of Paradise (1951). The studio kept him on to appear in Anne of the Indies (1951), directed by Jacques Tourneur.
He was announced for the romantic male lead in the Fox remake of Les Miserables, but ended up not appearing in the film.
He was in a comedy, The Happy Time (1952). He was reunited with Joan Fontaine for Decameron Nights (1953), then returned home to France to make Rue de l’Estrapade (1953).
After appearing in Three Coins in the Fountain (1954), Jourdan made his Broadway début in the lead in the Billy Rose stage adaptation of André Gide’s novel, The Immoralist.
He returned to Broadway for short run in 1955, and also that year he made his American TV début as Inspector Beaumont in the TV series Paris Precinct.
In 1956, he appeared in The Swan as “Dr Nicholas Agi” along with Grace Kelly and Sir Alec Guinness for MGM. This was Kelly’s last film, and lost money at the box office.
More popular was Julie (1956) a thriller where Jourdan tormented Doris Day.
He returned to France to play the lead in The Bride Is Much Too Beautiful (1956) with Brigitte Bardot as the lead actress, and Escapade (1957).
In Britain he appeared in a swashbuckler, Dangerous Exile (1957).
Jourdan appeared in his biggest hit as the romantic lead alongside Leslie Caron and Maurice Chevalier in the film version of the novella by Colette, Gigi (1958). This film won 9 Oscars, including Best Picture.
He enjoyed another hit with The Best of Everything (1959), an all-star romance in the vein of Three Coins in the Fountain.
He also appeared in a variety show on TV, An Evening with Louis Jourdan.
Jourdan was going to follow it in a remake of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in England for Terence Fisher. “It’s a terrific change of pace for me,” he said. However he did not appear in the final film, The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll.
Jourdan co-starred with Frank Sinatra, Chevalier and Shirley MacLaine in the musical Can-Can (1960).
He travelled to Italy to appear in a peplum film, Amazons of Rome (1961).
Back in France, he starred in a version of The Count of Monte Cristo (1961), a massive hit in France.
Disorder (1962) was an Italian-French comedy, Mathias Sandorf (1963) was based on a novel by Jules Verne.
For MGM, he made The V.I.P.s (1963), another all-star melodrama, and big hit.
Jourdan also sang in the Alan Jay Lerner/Barton Lane stage musical, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1965), during its out-of-town tryout at the Colonial Theatre in Boston. He was replaced as lead by John Cullum before the show reached Broadway.
He supported Ann-Margret in Made in Paris (1966) for MGM.
He then returned to Europe: The Sultans (1967), To Commit a Murder (1967), Cervantes (1967).
To Die in Paris (1968) was a US TV movie and A Flea in Her Ear (1968) a Hollywood farce.
There were more TV movies: Fear No Evil (1969), Run a Crooked Mile (1970), Ritual of Evil (1970), The Great American Beauty Contest (1973). In later years, Jourdan also appeared on television, including 1977’s Count Dracula for the BBC and as a murderous food critic in the 1978 Columbo episode “Murder Under Glass”.
Jourdan later played Anton Arcane in Swamp Thing (1982) and in its sequel The Return of Swamp Thing (1989).
During the 1970s, Jourdan recorded spoken word albums of the Babar the Elephant books that were released by Caedmon Records.
James Bond: Villain
In 1983, Jourdan played the villainous Kamal Khan in the James Bond movie Octopussy.
He earned most of his money over the past ten years doing commercials: I take them so seriously that I participate in the original concept and the actual writing. After all, whatever an actor is doing, he’s a salesman, so why not commercials? I must confess I love the theater best, though. I’ve never done a play I didn’t like, but one often does movies just to keep functioning. They’re less important to me than plays.
In 1985, he appeared in a stage revival of Gigi.
He played the French educator, historian and Baron, Pierre de Coubertin (1863–1937), in The First Olympics: Athens 1896, a May 1984 NBC TV (2-part) mini-series about the 1896 Summer Olympics and the American team member-discus thrower from Baltimore, Robert Garrett (1875–1961).
His last film role was 8 years later in Year of the Comet (1992).
On March 11, 1946, Jourdan married his childhood sweetheart, Berthe Frédérique. The marriage produced one child, Louis Henry Jourdan, October 6, 1951, and lasted until her death in 2014.
Son Dead of Overdose
Louis Henry Jourdan died of narcotics overdose at the age of 29 on May 12, 1981; his body was buried at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.
After his retirement from acting in 1992 Jourdan lived in Los Angeles.
In July 2010 he was made a Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur, which he received accompanied by friends, including Sidney Poitier and Kirk Douglas.
Jourdan has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6153 and 6445 Hollywood Boulevard.
Jourdan died at his home in Beverly Hills on February 14, 2015 at the age of 93.
His body was buried at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.
Filmography
1939
Le Corsaire (The Pirate)
Film never completed
1940
La Comédie du bonheur Fédor (Italy: Ecco la felicità) (England Comedy of Happiness)
1941
Her First Affair Pierre Rougemont (Premier rendez-vous)
Parade en sept nuits Freddy Richard, le clown
1942
L’Arlésienne Frédéri
The Beautiful Adventure André d’Éguzon
1943
The Heart of a Nation Christian Uncredited
1944
Les Petites du quai aux fleurs Francis
Félicie Nanteuil (US: Twilight) Robert de Ligny
1945
La Vie de Boheme Rodolphe / Rodolfo
1947
The Paradine Case André Latour, Paradine’s Valet
1948
Letter from an Unknown Woman Stefan Brand
No Minor Vices Octavio Quaglini
1949
Madame Bovary Rodolphe Boulanger
1951
Bird of Paradise André Laurence
Anne of the Indies Captain Pierre François La Rochelle
1952
The Happy Time Uncle Desmond Bonnard
1953
Paris Precinct Insp. Beaumont TV (15 episodes, 1953–1955)
Decameron Nights Giovanni Boccaccio / Paganino / Giulio / Don Bertando
Rue de l’Estrapade Henri Laurent
1954
Three Coins in the Fountain Prince Dino di Cessi
1956
The Swan, Dr. Nicholas Agi
Julie, Lyle Benton
The Bride Is Much Too Beautiful, Michel
1957
Love in the Afternoon, Narrator, Uncredited
Escapade, Frank Raphaël
Dangerous Exile Duke Philippe de Beauvais
1958
Gigi, Gaston Lachaille, Nominated–Golden Globe Best Actor –e
1959
The Best of Everything, David Savage
1960
Can-Can, Philipe Forrestier
1961
Le Vergini di Roma Drusco
The Count of Monte Cristo Edmond Dantes
1962
Disorder Tom
Leviathan [fr] Paul
1963
Mathias Sandorf Le comte Mathias Sandorf
Irma la Douce, Narrator, Uncredited
The V.I.P.s, Marc Champselle
1966
Made in Paris Marc Fontaine
Les Sultans Laurent
1967
To Commit a Murder Charles Beaulieu aka Peau d’espion
Cervantes Cardinal Acquaviva
1968
To Die in Paris Colonel Bertine Westrex TV
A Flea in Her Ear Henri Tournel
1969
Fear No Evil David Sorell TV
Run a Crooked Mile Richard Stuart TV
1970
Ritual of Evil David Sorell TV
1973
The Great American Beauty Contest Ralph Dupree TV
1975
Piange Il Telefono Alberto Landi
1975
The Count of Monte Cristo De Villefort TV
1976
L’hippopotamours Le camionneur
1977
The Man in the Iron Mask D’Artagnan TV
Silver Bears Prince di Siracusa
The More It Goes, the Less It Goes Paul Tango
Count Dracula Count Dracula TV
1978
Columbo Paul Gerard TV episode “Murder Under Glass”
1979
The French Atlantic Affair Captain Charles Girodt TV
1980
Charlie’s Angels Dr. Redmond TV episode “Nips and Tucks”
Vega$ Nicholas Rambeau TV episode “The Lido Girls”
1981
Vega$ Nicholas Rambeau TV episode “French Twist”
1982
Romance Theatre: Gamble on Love Host TV
Romance Theatre: Bayou Romance Host TV; uncredited
Swamp Thing Dr. Anton Arcane
1983
Octopussy Kamal Khan (James Bond movie)
Double Deal Peter Sterling
1984
Cover Up George LeMare
The First Olympics: Athens, 1896 Pierre de Coubertin TV
1986
Beverly Hills Madam Douglas Corbin TV
Romance Theatre: Escape to Love Host TV
1987
Grand Larceny Charles Grand
1988
Counterforce Kassar
1989
The Return of Swamp Thing Dr. Anton Arcane
1992
Year of the Comet Philippe
