Pierre Brasseur

Acting

Pierre Brasseur

Born — Died

1905-12-22 — 1972-08-16

Place of birth

Paris, France

Known for

Acting

Credits

67 titles

Pierre Brasseur, born Pierre-Albert Espinasse (22 December 1905, Paris – 16 August 1972, Bruneck, Italy) was a French actor. He was the son of actor Georges Espinasse and actress Germaine Brasseur while the latter was married to Albert Brasseur. His grandfather, Jules Brasseur, was an actor as well. The family tradition of using the name Brasseur was continued by his son Claude and his grandson Alexandre. Renowned for playing outsized characters, Brasseur is probably best known in the anglophone world for his (semi-fictionalised) portrayal of the actor Frédérick Lemaître in Les Enfants du Paradis (Children of Paradise, 1945) and as Docteur Génessier (more subdued) in the horror film Eyes W…

Known for

Film credits

1960s · 26 titles

Eyes Without a Face poster
7.6

Dr. Génessier is riddled with guilt after an accident that he caused disfigures the face of his daughter, the once beautiful Christiane, who outsiders believe is dead. Dr. Génessier, along with accomplice and laboratory assistant Louise, kidnaps young women and brings them to the Génessier mansion. After rendering his victims unconscious, Dr. Génessier removes their faces and attempts to graft them on to Christiane's.

Eyes Without a Face

1960

King of Hearts poster
7.0

An ornithologist mistaken for an explosives expert is sent alone into a small French town during WWI to investigate a garbled report from the resistance about a bomb which the departing Germans have set to blow up a weapons cache.

King of Hearts

1966

Il bell'Antonio poster
7.1

Problems arise for Antonio Magnano when he is unable to consummate his marriage to the beautiful Barbara Puglisi and his virility is called into question. Despite the fact that he loves his beautiful wife and they have otherwise been happily married for a year, his problem becomes a source of contention for all concerned.

Il bell'Antonio

1960

Carthage in Flames poster
5.2

Historical drama depicting the last of the Punic Wars between the Roman Republic and Carthage.

Carthage in Flames

1960

Don't Tempt the Devil poster
6.2

A lovely young nurse finds herself framed for the murder of a hospital patient who died after she administered an injection.

Don't Tempt the Devil

1963

Famous Love Affairs poster
4.4

An anthology of four historical love affairs: at Versailles, Louis XIV shares his mistress with one of his subjects; a courtesan tries to disfigure her lover with acid; a medieval wife faces the wrath of her husband's father, who has her condemned to death; and a stage actress provides advice on life and love to her young colleague.

Famous Love Affairs

1961

Lucky Jo poster
6.7

Lucky Jo and his three friends are little criminals, who try to live from small burglaries. But they never have luck - ever so often something inpredictable happens to Jo and gets one of them arrested. While Jo is in prison once again, they decide they'd better do without him in future. He decides to help them secretly...and unfortunately.

Lucky Jo

1964

Cloportes poster
6.3

Three little criminals get a tip for a great coup with lots of money in it. Unfortunately they lack the starting funds to buy the required welding torch. So they persuade their successful colleague Alphonse to join their team. But the well thought-out coup fails, and Alphonse is the only one of them who ends up in jail for several years. When he's released, he's out for revenge.

Cloportes

1965

Goto, Island of Love poster
6.4

A petty thief works his way up the absurd hierarchy of Goto, an archipelago cut off from civilisation by a tumultuous earthquake. His dream is to possess Glossia, a stifled beauty trapped in a loveless marriage to a melancholic dictator.

Goto, Island of Love

1969

Spotlight on a Murderer poster
6.5

An old count hides just before he dies to annoy his heirs. The heirs search a manor for the count's body and are killed off one by one. Jean-Marie, his fiancée Micheline, and Edwige investigate the deaths and search for the count's body.

Spotlight on a Murderer

1961

A Matter of Resistance poster
6.8

In the countryside near Normandy's beaches lives Marie, unhappy. It's 1945, she's married to Jérôme, a somewhat fussy milquetoast, diffident to the war around him and unwilling to move his wife to Paris, where she longs to live, shop, and party. A German outfit is bivouacked at Jérôme and Marie's crumbling château because its commanding officer is pursuing Marie. She's also eyed by a French spy working with the Allies as they plan D-Day. He woos her (posing to the Germans as her brother) and, in his passion, forgets his mission. Heroics come from an unexpected direction, and Marie makes her choice.

A Matter of Resistance

1966

The Dialogue of the Carmelites poster
7.4

This drama about the Carmelite order of nuns is set during the French Revolution. A young woman seeks refuge with the Carmelites because she is terrified of dying during the upheaval. The longer she associates with the nuns the more she is transformed by their faith and devotion. 

The Dialogue of the Carmelites

1960

Sous le signe de Monte-Cristo poster
6.8

Edmond Dantès, who was active in the resistance against the Nazis, is accused for being a Nazi collaborator and is imprisoned in the fortress of Sisteron.

Sous le signe de Monte-Cristo

1968

Two Hours to Kill poster
6.5

In the waiting room of the Auvernaux station, the atmosphere is very lively. Several passengers, who have missed their train, are discussing the killer of young girls who is rampant in the region. While the criminal might be in the vicinity, pursued by the police, a journalist leads the investigation inside the station.

Two Hours to Kill

1966

Rencontres poster
7.3

Bella Krastner is sunbathing on a beach on the Côte d'Azur when she attracts the attention of an attractive younger man, Ralph Scaffari. It is the start of a whirlwind romance which looks like it might last beyond the end of the summer. Unfortunately, Bella is already married, to Carl Krastner, a once renowned pianist who has become bitter and reclusive after a car accident that irreparably damaged one of his hands. Krastner no longer has any zest for living. He tyrannises both his wife and his sister Laurence and divides his time between scuba diving and gambling. After ratcheting up a small fortune in gambling debts, Krastner decides to fake his own death so that he can claim on his life insurance.

Rencontres

1962

Emile's Boat poster
6.8

Charles-Edmond, the eldest of the Larmentiel brothers, decides to return to La Rochelle, his hometown to die there. Forty years earlier he had been driven out by his father. Before passing away, the old eccentric announces that he has a hidden son, Émile, a fisherman to whom he wishes to bequeath his property. François, the younger brother, whom Charles-Edmond hates, is eyeing the inheritance to bail out the powerful family business, a veritable fishing trust, and will try to appropriate the affection and property of this inopportune heir. Émile, meanwhile, is too busy arguing with Fernande, a beugland singer, to suspect what awaits him...

Emile's Boat

1962

The Madman of Lab Four poster
6.0

This talkative and unevenly paced feature finds Fou (Jean Lefebvre) the inventor of a gas that makes the users fall in love. He is chased by his boss, the police, and spies, who seek to secure the secret recipe for their own selfish purposes. A shadowy American underworld figure tries to intimidate the inventor. A half-hearted attempt at comedy tries to go along with the double dealing and trickery of the thin plot of the film.

The Madman of Lab Four

1967

The Nina B. Affair poster
5.8

A businessman who lives from blackmailing begins to be blackmailed by his own wife who hates him.

The Nina B. Affair

1961

A Little Virtuous poster
6.5

In Paris, the young photographer Ferdinand falls in love with Claire, a pickpocket. Shortly after, he is assaulted because he took pictures of the young woman with another man, Brady, his sponsor. The policeman Lorenzi is put on the case, but in love, Ferdinand does not want to denounce her. However, a stolen object that she offered him will allow his indictment: Claire will spend a year in prison. When she is released, Ferdinand marries her. Kerman, Ferdinand's new boss, employs Claire in his cabaret. She puts on a famous act during which she picks the pockets of the spectators, then gives the objects back at the end of the show. But Brady reappears, demanding 80% of the young woman's earnings, otherwise he will denounce Claire's bigamy, to whom he is still married! Ferdinand prepares to flee with his wife. When he finds her, he comes across the corpse of Brady, whom Claire has just killed.

A Little Virtuous

1968

Hitch-Hike poster
6.1

Agathe, 18, dreams of change. Gone are her vacations on the rainy beaches of Belgium! She decides to hitchhike down to the South of France, where she'll have many happy and less happy encounters. On the way to Paris, men of various ages offer to shorten her wait by the roadside. Some try to take advantage of her, while another, in a fit of madness, tries to stab her. Despite these assaults, Agathe continues her journey, heading for Valence and then Aix-en-Provence.

Hitch-Hike

1962

A Young World poster
10.0

A freelance photographer falls in love with a French medical student and becomes pregnant. Faced with the situation, he pressures her to have an abortion, even sleeping with an older woman for money. She later decides to keep the baby.

A Young World

1966

The Abominable Man of Customs poster
5.4

Two rival gangs fight over drug trafficking. An American killer named Timetti Le Muet arrives at Marseille airport to make a delivery to Arnakos' gang. He is denounced to the police, and the peaceful customs officer Camposantos is put in charge of his arrest. Following a mix-up, Camposantos is mistaken for the killer himself. Taken in by Arnakos' men, the innocent customs officer is forced to play a rather unexpected role.

The Abominable Man of Customs

1963

Josefa's Loot poster
5.4

Justin, a lyricist by trade, and his friend Pierre, a composer, lead a bohemian life in Paris. Justin thinks his mother Josefa is richer than she appears, and decides to swindle her out of three million centimes by using Pierre as an intermediary in a case involving an insolvent check. Josefa uncovers the ruse and refuses to help her son. However, Pierre has discovered the identity of his friend's father, who had been unknown to him for twenty years. With the help of Justin's mother, the two friends do everything they can to extort the son's missing three million centimes from his ashamed and repentant father.

Josefa's Loot

1963

The Circular Triangle poster
8.0

Business tycoon dies in plane crash. Suspected, Georg, his main partner, Alain, a young Turkish finance, and Anna Maria, the group's proxy, are all seeking his succession.

The Circular Triangle

1964

Long Live Henry IV... Long Live Love! poster
5.6

Henri IV falls in love with the young Charlotte de Montmorency, 40 years his junior. The king decided to marry her off to his nephew, Henri de Condé, so that he could later make her his mistress.

Long Live Henry IV... Long Live Love!

1961

Crime Does Not Pay poster
5.5

A man walks into a movie theater in Paris and starts watching a film—the same one we're watching, consisting of four stories of best criminal intentions gone awry from the Middle Ages to the present day.

Crime Does Not Pay

1962

1950s · 13 titles

Le Plaisir poster
7.5

Three stories about pleasure. The first one is about a man hiding his age behind a mask to keep going to balls and fancying women - pleasure and youth. Then comes the long tale of Madame Tellier taking her girls (whores) to the country for attending her niece's communion - pleasure and purity. And lastly, Jean the painter falls in love with his model - pleasure and death.

Le Plaisir

1952

The Curious Adventures of Mr. Wonderbird poster
7.2

A chimney sweep and his beloved shepherdess are aided by Wonderbird in their escape from a ruthless dictator

The Curious Adventures of Mr. Wonderbird

1953

The Law poster
5.9

A gorgeous housekeeper turns the tables on the men in a small Mediterranean coastal town by using their own vicious drinking game.

The Law

1959

Sans famille poster
6.1

The Remi abandoned by his foster father sold to the troubadour Vasalis, in his living through the rural villages the people to entertain, gehoplen his three dogs and a monkey. In the beginning Remi takes its new master, but a demanding and hard man, and the animals have not been too much with the clumsy boy. But gradually creates a bond between Remi and his new comrades, until their friendship is suddenly disrupted when Vasalis is arrested for vagrancy and sentenced. Then Remi, alone in the world, along with his animal friends in position to try to keep ...

Sans famille

1958

The Gates of Paris poster
6.6

Juju, a drunken oaf who feels the need of being important to someone---anyone---and his friend The Artist are forced at gunpoint to house a fugitive, Pierre Barbier, in Juju's broken-down home. The urge for being needed is such in Juju that he gives up drinking and takes care of Pierre. But one day Juju finds out that Pierre has been making love to his girl Maria...

The Gates of Paris

1957

Lost Souvenirs poster
5.5

Suppose lost and found objects could talk... But they can! At least four of them... : -A statuette of Osiris remembers how two ex-lovers, a model and a good for nothing who claimed to be an Egyptologist, met again one Christmas Eve. -A violin has things to say about Raoul, a humble policeman who lost Solange, a widowed grocer he loved, to a god-dam seducing busker also named Raoul. -A scarf was witness to an eerie romance between a young madman and girl he had saved from suicide. -A funeral wreath lets us know how it caused a young woman to believe her lover dead. After having told their respective story, the objects return to their customary stillness.

Lost Souvenirs

1950

Napoleon poster
6.3

The film follows the life of Napoleon from his early life in Corsica to his death at Saint Helena. The film is notable for its use of location shooting for numerous scenes, especially at the French estates of Malmaison and Fontainebleau, the Palace of Versailles, and sites of Napoleonic battles including Austerlitz and Waterloo.

Napoleon

1955

Head Against the Wall poster
6.8

An aimless young man is committed to a psychiatric hospital by his father in an attempt to cure him of his delinquent tendencies.

Head Against the Wall

1959

Life Together poster
6.1

The writer Pierre Carot became rich and famous with his book "Life as a Couple", which was based on the loving relationships of four couples. Now he's setting up his will and wants to leave his wealth to the couples among the four, which are still as deeply in love - if any: else, his companions get the money. He sends them out to visit the couples and test their love.

Life Together

1958

The Possessors poster
6.9

Noël Schoudler, founder of an empire built on three foundations - sugar, banking and the press - reigns like an absolute sovereign over his business and his family. But someone is about to challenge this authority: his son François...

The Possessors

1958

Oasis poster
9.0

Two female agents from a rival gang are sent to disrupt the operations of a gold-smuggler's caravan in Africa.

Oasis

1955

Saint-Tropez, devoirs de vacances poster
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

Saint-Tropez, devoirs de vacances

1954

Crimson Curtain poster
6.6

Bertal, a despotic and hated theater director, is assassinated before a performance of Macbeth in which he was to play with Aurélia Nobli, his companion and Ludovic Arn, her lover. The police arrive on the scene and the investigation begins. Suspicion first falls on Sigurd, an old actor who had threatened Bertal. But parallels appear between the characters in the play and the actors who play them.

Crimson Curtain

1952

1940s · 6 titles

Children of Paradise poster
8.0

In a chaotic 19th-century Paris teeming with aristocrats, thieves, psychics, and courtesans, theater mime Baptiste is in love with the mysterious actress Garance. But Garance, in turn, is loved by three other men: pretentious actor Frederick, conniving thief Lacenaire, and Count Edouard of Montray.

Children of Paradise

1945

Gates of the Night poster
7.0

In post-Liberation Paris, a man reunites with a friend and meets the woman of his dreams, only to discover her brother's dark past.

Gates of the Night

1946

Summer Light poster
7.0

A shimmering glass hotel at the top of a remote Provençal mountain provides the setting for a tragicomic tapestry about an obsessive love pentangle, whose principals range from an artist to a hotel manager to a dam worker.

Summer Light

1943

Millionaires for One Day poster
6.0

A typographer makes a mistake by printing the winning number of the national lottery. Many people believe they have won the jackpot. Pursued by his newspaper editor, the worker appears in court where all mystified people are invited to testify.

Millionaires for One Day

1949

The Revenge of Baccarat poster
7.0

In Paris, in the middle of the 19th century, the Comte de Chamery died of poisoning, leaving a considerable fortune to his long-dead son. Sir William, the count's murderer, hires a young rogue, Rocambole, to pretend to be the deceased's son. The two accomplices have the Count's fortune handed over to them. But their trickery is discovered by an intriguer, Baccarat, who finds the real Count of Chamery, a young painter without fortune, in love with Carmen de Montevecchio. Rocambole, who stops at nothing, kills Sir William, gets rid of Armand and makes Carmen love him. But Baccarat is determined not to let him continue his villainies.

The Revenge of Baccarat

1948

Pétrus poster
6.0

Petrus, a Montmartre photographer, is accidentally wounded by Migo, a dancer at the Frou Frou night club, when she is trying to shoot her faithless lover Rodrigue, a counterfeiter. Though Petrus tries to reconcile the lovers, Migo lands up with him after Rodrigue is finally killed by another jealous dancer.

Pétrus

1946

1930s · 7 titles

Port of Shadows poster
7.4

Down a foggy, desolate road to the port city of Le Havre travels Jean, an army deserter looking for another chance to make good on life. Fate, however, has a different plan for him, as acts of both revenge and kindness render him front-page news.

Port of Shadows

1938

Grisou poster
8.0

Femme fatale Madeleine Robinson is married to Raymond Aimos, a coal miner with a face like a pickled walnut and a libido to match. She wants some action, and what she can’t get from her impotent husband, she looks for elsewhere, first with his best friend Pierre Brasseur, then with his boss Lucien Gallas, who is also dating Brasseur’s kid sister Odette Joyeux.

Grisou

1938

The Life of Giuseppe Verdi poster
9.5

The great Italian opera composer recalls his eventful life on his deathbed: his childhood in Busseto, his studies in Milan, his first opera "Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio", the death of his wife and his children killed by smallpox.

The Life of Giuseppe Verdi

1938

Heartbeat poster
6.9

A pompous grocer’s assistant in Marseille annoys a visiting film crew so much that they prank him with a phony acting contract; believing it to be real, the “schpountz” heads to Paris for his new career.

Heartbeat

1938

Le père Lebonnard poster
7.0

Father Lebonnard, a former watchmaker who made a fortune, remains simple while his wife is only dreaming of worldly affairs and pushes his son Freddy to marry Bianca, the daughter of the Marquis de Rocafort, their neighbor. She feeds a similar project for her daughter Mariella.

Le père Lebonnard

1939

Une femme qui se partage poster
7.0

Louis Cruciol, a married man, leads a double life: he maintains his mistress by taking the identity of one of his employees, Louis Cornette. A series of misunderstandings ensues.

Une femme qui se partage

1937

Circulate! poster
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

Circulate!

1931

Series credits

Behind the camera