Michel Constantin

Acting

Michel Constantin

Born 1924-07-13 · Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine, France

Michel Constantin (born Constantin Hokhloff; 13 July 1924 – 28 August 2003) was a French actor and professional volleyball player. He was the men’s national volleyball champion from 1954 to 1956, before making his film debut as a convict in the 1960 prison thriller The Hole. Thanks to his stature and striking features, he became a popular character actor in crime films, often playing thugs and gangsters. He appeared in several films alongside his friend Charles Bronson during the 1970's. Born Constantin Hokhloff in Billancourt (near Paris), he was the son of a White Russian emigre father and his Polish wife. Hokhloff's father was a former officer in the Russian Army, of Kalmyk descent. He had met Hokhloff's mother while he was stationed in Warsaw, Congress Poland. After the Russian Civil War, the coupled moved to Paris, along with many other White emigres. During World War II, he worked at the Renault factories in Boulogne-Billancourt, where his family lived. Thanks to his height (1.85 meters) and athletic ability, Constantin was recruited by the volleyball team of Club olympique de Billancourt (CO Billancourt) in 1943. He switched teams to Racing Club de France for the 1947-48 season, but returned to CO Billancourt the following season. As setter, he led the team to French national championships in 1954, 1955 and 1956. It was during this period that he changed his name to Michel Constantin. During this time, he was also a freelance reporter for the sports journal L'Équipe. Constantin appeared as an extra in the 1956 film Plucking the Daisy, but made his first significant acting debut in the 1960 prison thriller The Hole. Director Jacques Becker and screenwriter José Giovanni sought to recruit a cast of non-professional actors to play the various convicts. Becker's son Jean knew Constantin from his volleyball days, and recommended him for the part. The film was a critical and commercial success, and enabled Constantin's transition into an acting career. Source: Article "Michel Constantin" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.

Acting credits

Le Trou poster
8.2

Four prison inmates have been hatching a plan to literally dig out of jail when another prisoner, Claude Gaspard, is moved into their cell. They take a risk and share their plan with the newcomer. Over the course of three days, the prisoners and friends break through the concrete floor using a bed post and begin to make their way through the sewer system – yet their escape is anything but assured.

Le Trou

1960

Cold Sweat poster
5.7

During the Korean War, Joe Moran, is convicted for striking a colonel. Imprisoned in Germany he encounters his former company commander Captain Ross, jailed for black marketeering. Together with Ross' cohorts Joe agrees to escape with them, but things go wrong and a policeman is killed. An appalled Joe escapes by himself, abandoning the others, who are recaptured. Years later Joe has a boat rental business where he is found by Ross. Now a wanted drug smuggler he wants the use of Joe's boats and to ensure his cooperation, they kidnap his wife and daughter.

Cold Sweat

1970

Signé Furax poster
5.0

The notorious and mysterious criminal Furax steals France's famous monuments, replacing them with replicas.

Signé Furax

1981

Ville à vendre poster
5.2

A man comes to a small town in France and witness the apparent murder of a woman pharmacist. He teams up with the victim's vulgar assistant to try to solve the mystery.

Ville à vendre

1992

The Inglorious Bastards poster
6.2

Set in Europe during WWII, a group of American soldiers on their way to military prison are beset upon by a German artillery attack, escaping with Switzerland in their sights. Before making it any farther, they volunteer to steal a V2 warhead for the French Underground - taking them deep into the heart of German territory.

The Inglorious Bastards

1978

A Very Curious Girl poster
6.2

Treated as an outcast and exploited by the villagers of a small town, a young woman liberates herself through sex, which she uses as a tool of economic gain and an instrument of revenge against those who have wronged her.

A Very Curious Girl

1969

Jerk in Istanbul poster
4.7

Vincent And Gregoire have just won a lot a money. The latter wants the whole pile and flies away to Turkey where he meets a compatriot, Appoline, and her boss Samos.

Jerk in Istanbul

1967

Shot Pattern poster
6.3

A Paris flea market vendor is transformed into a vigilante after his fiancée is murdered by three vicious thugs on a commuter train. As the revenge-minded young man tracks the killers, a veteran police inspector leads a parallel investigation.

Shot Pattern

1982

Violent City poster
5.9

A hitman is double-crossed by his girlfriend and barely escapes a murder attempt. He then sets out to take his revenge on the woman and the gang boss who put her up to it.

Violent City

1970

Le Deuxième Souffle poster
7.7

A gangster escapes jail and quickly makes plans to continue his criminal ways elsewhere, but a determined inspector is closing in.

Le Deuxième Souffle

1966

La Baston poster
3.8

After doing some time in jail, René has finally said goodbye to his criminal past. But when his son is mortally ill and in desperate need of expensive medical help, René can't refuse the offer to crack a safe in a villa. What René and his pals don't know is that they serve as a decoy for criminals who have much bigger plans. Can he escape from the police?

La Baston

1985

Les Gorilles poster
6.4

A confused pair of airport luggage carriers get involved in the disappearance of some suitcases.

Les Gorilles

1964

The Pariah poster
6.8

For more than 15 years, two Marseille friends and criminals battle the law, rival gangs, prison authorities and even mined beaches in order to survive.

The Pariah

1972

Killing in the Sun poster
6.7

The murder of a Parisian mobster starts a war within the world of organized crime.

Killing in the Sun

1973

The Strangers poster
6.9

A violent and ruthless bank robber hides out from the police scouring the countryside for him in the home of a couple living far out in the desert. But the couple not only know who he is, they have secrets of their own and are just as ruthless.

The Strangers

1969

Maigret Sees Red poster
6.3

Gangsters from the United States try to kill a key government witness whose testimony could help land an influential mobster in jail. It's up to detective Maigret to deal with the FBI and a series of underworld figures to save the life of the witness...

Maigret Sees Red

1963

The Wise Guys poster
7.9

Hector Valentin returns to France from Canada when he inherits a small sawmill. He has difficulties restarting the run-down operation which has inefficient workers and is hampered by the dirty tactics of its bigger...

The Wise Guys

1965

The Outside Man poster
6.2

A French hit man is hired by a crime family to end the life of a rival mobster, but things fall apart when the boss who hired him is killed.

The Outside Man

1972

There Once Was a Cop poster
6.1

Campana, a commissar at the drugs bureau of Paris police gets an undercover job in Nice to catch an Italian-French mafia boss. As he slips into the identity of a gangster's brother, who was already killed, he has to play the role of a loving husband with child - something that is not so easy for a confirmed single like Campana. Unfortunately American killers chase behind the Nice mafia clan too, in order to get control of French drug trades to USA.

There Once Was a Cop

1972

The Telephone Always Rings Twice poster
5.5

Marc Elbichon, a novice private sleuth, is investigating a wave of assassinations bearing a particular characteristic: the perpetrator, dubbed the "telephone killer" always strangles his female victims with a telephone cord.

The Telephone Always Rings Twice

1985

The Vultures poster
6.0

April 5, 1943: a battalion of the Foreign Legion arrives in El Ksour, Tunisia, to escort a fortune in gold bars to the home front. A German ambush awaits, and all but four die. Thanks to the street smarts of Sergeant Augagneur, the Legionnaires successfully counter attack. The bank manager and his seductive wife arrive, and so does a German lieutenant, whom the French arrest. Augagneur wants to steal the gold; warrant officer Mahuzard wants to do his duty. A series of alliances form and break apart, the group dwindles in number, and the gold heads south toward Betahoua. But in whose possession?

The Vultures

1984

Quarter to Two Before Jesus Christ poster
6.0

In ancient Rome, a simple pepboy for chars becomes involved in a coup against Cesar. Rahatlocum is a North African Roman colony where Julius Caesar came to spend an expensive holiday. The revolt rumbles among the locals who find a leader in the person of Ben-Hur Marcel.

Quarter to Two Before Jesus Christ

1982

OK Patron poster
5.7

Mario, the head of the Mafia in France, has just been mortally wounded. His "companion" decides to find him a successor, before the New York "organization" appoints one. She instructs her two bodyguards to take on anyone who likes money, doesn't have any and, above all, doesn't want to work too hard - in short, "the average Frenchman"... They discover Léon Bonnet, a representative of "magic crosses". They send him gifts: champagne, weapons (a mistake...), a ring for his fiancée, and a meal worthy of the finest gourmets. In return, they take him to Mario's dying bedside, and have him sign over the estate. It's then that Leon, with his angelic good looks, restores order within the Mafia, surprising all his adversaries with his manners, and outwitting the police...

OK Patron

1974

The Southern Star poster
5.9

Comedy adventure based on a Jules Verne novel about the ups and downs of jewel thieves in the wilds of Africa circa 1900. George Segal is the appealing hero-heel and Ursula Andress is visually stunning as the lady in the proceedings. Orson Welles has a small role.

The Southern Star

1969

Behind the camera