Biography for
Gérard Oury More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

29 April 1919, Paris, France

Date of Death

19 July 2006, Saint-Tropez, Var, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France

Birth Name

Max-Gérard Houry

Spouse

Michèle Morgan

(1960 - 19 July 2006) (his death)

Trivia

Father, with actress Jacqueline Roman, of writer Danièle Thompson.

Grandfather of actor Christopher Thompson and actress Caroline Thompson.

Educated at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art and a one-time member of the Comédie-Française.

A classic stage actor (Racine's "Brittanicus") and then star and support actor of European and American film adventures, he turned to comedy as a director and helmed a string of successful comedies featuring his country's top actors (Bourvil, Louis de Funès, Jean-Paul Belmondo, etc.) His (La grande vadrouille (1966)) retains the record for attendance by a French movie, and was only dethroned as the top ticket-seller ever in France by Titanic.

Played Napoléon twice in films - Sea Devils (1953) with Rock Hudson and Yvonne De Carlo, and Loves of Three Queens (1954) (L'amante di Paride (1954)) with Hedy Lamarr as his Joséphine.

Collaborated with daughter Danièle Thompson on several of his screenplays, including Don't Look Now (1969) (La grande vadrouille (1966)) and Lévy et Goliath (1987). In turn, Danièle collaborated with her son and Gérard's grandson, Christopher Thompson, on several screenplays, including La bûche (1999) and Jet Lag (2002) (Décalage horaire (2002).

He was the son of a Jewish violinist. He left France in 1940 to escape the Nazi occupation, but returned after the war. He started out as an actor, and became a director in 1959. Although his films were comedies, they usually dealt with serious issues such as racism. He once said that his films "dealt with serious things by making people laugh".

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