
Acting
Daniel Gélin
Born 1921-05-19 · Angers, Maine-et-Loire, France
Daniel Yves Alfred Gélin (19 May 1921 – 29 November 2002) was a French actor. Gélin was born in Angers, Maine-et-Loire, the son of Yvonne (née Le Méner) and Alfred Ernest Joseph Gélin. When he was ten, his family moved to Saint-Malo where Daniel went to college until he was expelled for 'uncouthness'. His father then found him a job in a shop that sold cans of salted cod. It was seeing the shooting of Marc Allégret's film Entrée des artistes that triggered his desire to go to Paris to train to be an actor. He trained at the Cours Simon in Paris before entering the Conservatoire national d'art dramatique. There he met Louis Jouvet and embarked on a theatrical career. He made his first film appearance in 1940 in Miquette and for several years was an extra or played small roles in French films. He appeared with Jean Gabin and Marlene Dietrich in Martin Roumagnac (1946). He won his first leading role in Rendez-vous de juillet (1949). From that time, he went on to appear in more than 150 films, including Max Ophüls' films La Ronde (1950) and Le Plaisir (1952), Jacques Becker's Édouard et Caroline (1951), Sacha Guitry's films Si Versailles m'était conté (Royal Affairs in Versailles) (1954) and Napoléon (1955), Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), Jean Cocteau's Le Testament d'Orphée (1960), Le souffle au cœur (Murmur of the Heart) (1971), and La Nuit de Varennes (That Night in Varennes) (1982). He also wrote and directed one film, The Long Teeth, in 1952. Gélin was a leading man in French cinema during the 1950s, but his career declined with the coming of the New Wave. He worked in theater for several years, but later found new success on screen as a character actor. He appeared extensively in French films and television productions from the 1970s until his death, often playing cynical characters or grumpy old men. In 1946, Gélin married actress Danièle Delorme with whom he had a son, actor, director and producer Xavier Gélin. They divorced in 1954. While still married to Delorme, he had an affair with 17 year old model Marie Christine Schneider that produced a daughter, Maria Schneider. Due to his status as a married man, Gélin could not recognize Maria as his daughter. He visited the child several times but eventually severed his relationship with her mother. Maria Schneider and Daniel Gélin reconnected when she was sixteen and came to visit him. They remained in contact, although their relationship was irregular. Gélin was married to model Sylvie Hirsch from 1954 until their divorce in 1968. This marriage produced three children, Pascal (who died aged one year), Fiona , and Manuel, the latter two also becoming actors. In 1973, he remarried to Lydie Zaks with whom he had a daughter, Laura. Gélin died in Paris on 29 November 2002 of kidney failure. Source: Article "Daniel Gélin" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Acting credits
7.4An American doctor and his wife, a former singing star, witness a murder while vacationing in Morocco, and are drawn into a twisting plot of international intrigue when their young son is kidnapped.
The Man Who Knew Too Much
1956
3.7In a complex story of automotive intrigue, oil barons, corporate finance, and international villainy, the inventor of an environmentally friendly car powered by energy cells becomes the target of killers. After Ralph Korda has given his patented worldcar to a German automaker for testing, he is confronted by ominous men, eager to get their hands on his patent. Evil Arab petroleum lords also want to stop this threat to the gasoline market any way they can.
Killing Cars
1986
7.0This loosely plotted coming-of-age tale follows the life of 15-year-old Laurent Chevalier as he stumbles his way over the burgeoning swell of adolescence in 1950s France. After having his first sexual experience with a prostitute and dodging the lips of a priest, Chevalier contracts a case of scarlet fever. When the fever leaves him with a heart murmur, Chevalier is placed in a sanatorium, along with his over-attentive and adulterous mother.
Murmur of the Heart
1971
7.2Near the end of World War II, General Dietrich von Choltitz receives orders to burn down Paris if it becomes clear the Allies are going to invade, or if he's unable to maintain control of the city. After much contemplation, Choltitz ignores orders, enraging the Germans and giving hope to various resistance factions that the city will be liberated. Choltitz, alongside Swedish diplomat Raoul Nordling, helps a leader organise his forces.
Is Paris Burning?
1966
6.3The 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
6.1During the fascist era, Adriana a beautiful young model, becomes a prostitute after a love affair gone wrong. She meets Mino, a partisan who falls in love with her and wants to redeem her.
Woman of Rome
1954
Lucrèce, a famous actress, is bothered first, then flattered by the passionate testimonies of love given to her by François, a 12th grade student infatuated with her. Taking pity on the boy, Lucrèce decides to heal him of his madness and with this in mind she invites him for a working holiday on her farm. Instead, she falls in love with the cherub. At a time, her young lover grows so jealous of her that he attempts suicide. The mature actress then understands that their love story is going nowhere. She will remain alone while François will forget her.
Lucrèce
1943
5.0The notorious and mysterious criminal Furax steals France's famous monuments, replacing them with replicas.
Signé Furax
1981
6.0In the harbor of Toulon, on the “Ocean” training ship, the apprenticeship of the cabin boys and experts of the Navy is punctuated by permissions in town, friendships, bullying, and loves.
Les Cadets de l'océan
1945
7.5A second-class horror movie has to be shown at Cannes Film Festival, but, before each screening, the projectionist is killed by a mysterious fellow, with hammer and sickle, just as it happens in the film to be shown.
Fear City: A Family-Style Comedy
1994
7.6An 18th century poet travels through time in search of divine wisdom. In a mysterious wasteland, he has a series of enigmatic encounters with symbolic phantoms with whom he muses about the nature of art and his own career. Ultimately, the poet strives to achieve his rebirth as a celestial being.
Testament of Orpheus
1960
6.9During the French Revolution, a surprising company shares a coach, trying to catch up something - the time itself, perhaps.
That Night of Varennes
1982
6.7Witty narration follows the history of Versailles Palace; founded by Louis XIII, enlarged by autocratic Louis XIV, whose personal affairs and amours, and those of his two successors, are pursued in more detail to the start of the Revolution, after which the story is brought rapidly up to date.
Royal Affairs in Versailles
1953
6.3Due to an urgent need of money, aspiring writer Agnes participates in an amateur striptease contest. Her new boyfriend, Daniel, who is a reporter by profession, covers the contest for his magazine.
Plucking the Daisy
1956
7.5Three 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
6.1Frost is arrested and committed for murder after he is apprehended burying his victims in the garden. However, even while under psychiatric care and tight hospital security, it becomes obvious that Mr. Frost is not all he seems to be.
Mr. Frost
1990
5.7Commercial director Serge Faberge is having an affair with Evelyne, the 18 year old fiancee of friend Hugh. His own pregnant wife Francoise usually does not mind his dalliances, until he actually walks out on her and their newborn baby to move in with Evelyne. The shoe is on the other foot when dashing stuntman Dado catches Evelyne's eye in Venice.
Slogan
1969
10.0Miquette is a young woman whose beauty and vivacity increase the clientele of her mother's tobacco shop. A Barrymoresque actor believes that Miquette has star potential, but he hasn't sufficient capital to finance her theatrical debut. He manages to get the money by practicing a bit of genteel blackmail on an aging marquis who has romantic designs on the heroine.
Miquette
1940
6.8Having fortuitously discovered a photograph in which Marthe embraces someone unknown, Étienne Dorsay becomes jealous and imagines various stratagems to identify the lover. In the meantime, he and his friends acquire a weekend house for a very low price.
We Will All Meet in Paradise
1977
7.3An all-knowing interlocutor guides us through a series of affairs in Vienna, 1900. A soldier meets an eager young lady of the evening. Later he has an affair with a young lady, who becomes a maid and does similarly with the young man of the house. The young man seduces a married woman. On and on, spinning on the gay carousel of life.
La Ronde
1950
7.8After a missed burglary, deux young cads take refuge in a retiring-pension sowing terror. On the call of one of the pensioners, the police catch them. But some of the old people are puzzled by their situation and decide to ask about them...
Roulez jeunesse !
1993
7.1Portrait of a two-faced man. By day he is rich, brilliant and respectable financial officer Lussac; at night, he becomes "Mirror", a ruthless gang leader in Marseilles.
Mirror
1947
8.2Charismatic and resourceful, seducer and daredevil, Jean-Paul Belmondo has always played his roles as he lived, at a thousand miles an hour. He had only one passion: to entertain the public with his smile, his naturalness, his energy, his stunts. But contrary to appearances, his destiny was full of pitfalls. This film lifts the veil on a founding childhood that allowed him to overcome many obstacles throughout his life thanks to the tutelary figures of his father and mother. Told from the inside with the help of his autobiography, interviews and unpublished archives, this epic story traces the career of this turbulent young actor who launched the New Wave in Breathless before becoming the popular Bebel, an indestructible and provocative vigilante. From film to film, this documentary paints an intimate portrait of a man who built himself up to reach the top: his triumphs but also his trials, his doubts, his secrets, his angers, his clowning, his disappointments or his personal dramas.
Belmondo: The Incorrigible
2022
6.0Rose, 20, lives in Camargue with her brother Vincent, her elder, and her mechanic father who has never recovered from the departure of their mother when they were children. She serves as the wife and mother to both and, tired of this situation, she wants to go to Marseille to find a job, and then live there.
Mauvaise fille
1991
