Charles Denner

Biography: life and films

In a career spanning four decades, Charles Denner was a prolific actor of stage and screen who was privileged to work with some of the finest directors of his time. He was born in Tarnów, Poland, on 29th May 1926. Polish Jews, his family settled in Paris when he was 4 years old. During the Nazi Occupation of France, still a teenager, the young Charles risked his life by serving in the French Resistance, for which he was awarded the Croix de Guerre. After the war, he decided on an acting career and began studying drama under Charles Dullin. He was soon treading the boards, performing in Jean Vilar's productions of Shakespeare's Richard II and Corneille's Le Cid at the 1949 Festival d'Avignon.

It was whilst performing at the Théâtre National Populaire in Paris that Denner came into contact with many other talented young actors who were destined for stardom - these included Jeanne Moreau, Michel Galabru and François Périer. Whilst at the TNP, he appeared in productions of Bertolt Brecht's Mère Courage (1951), Molière's L'Avare (1952) and Alfred de Musset's Lorenzaccio (1952). He also performed in Albert Camus's adaptation of Dostoyevsky's The Devils at the Théâtre Antoine in 1959 and a production of Shakespeare's King Lear (1967) at the Théâtre de Chaillot.

Charles Denner's first film appearance was in a walk-on-part in Maurice Tourneur's Volpone (1941). Thirteen years later, he returned to the big screen in a succession of small roles, in films such as Gilles Grangier's Poisson d'avril (1954), Yves Allégret's La Meilleure part (1955) and Louis Malle's Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (1957), before he finally landed his first major screen role - in Claude Chabrol's darkly comedic biopic Landru (1963). Chabrol gave Denner the role after being impressed by his performance in Jean Vilar's stage production of Bertolt Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. With his sinister features and distinctive voice, Denner was well-suited to play the monstrous killer Landru, but he also brought a charm to his portrayal that prevents us from being unsympathetic towards him. This odd mix of qualities (inspiring both attraction and revulsion) would be exploited by other film directors, who would often cast the actor as the sympathetic grotesque. His repertoire included fanatics, criminals, shady police inspectors, social misfits and creepy romantics.

Even though he preferred working in the theatre, Charles Denner was an immense screen talent and he brought lustre to a wide range of films in the 1960s and 70s. Memorable performances are to be found in Costa-Gavras's Compartiment tueurs (1965), Claude Berri's Le Vieil homme et l'enfant (1966), Louis Malle's Le Voleur (1966), Henri Verneuil's Peur sur la ville (1975) and Claude Sautet's Mado (1976). But it wasn't until François Truffaut conferred on him the lead role of L'Homme qui aimait les femmes that he reached the pinnacle of his art, playing a man who (like Truffaut) was morbidly addicted to the opposite sex. This was the role for which he received his one and only Best Actor César nomination. Claude Lelouch made the most of Denner's comedic skills, casting him in no fewer than five of his films, including L'Aventure c'est l'aventure (1972). One of the actor's best comedy outings is in Lelouch's Robert et Robert (1978), in which he forms an unforgettable double act with Jacques Villeret.

Charles Denner's career was tragically cut short when, in the winter of 1986, he contracted a lung infection that left him debilitated for the rest of his life. His final screen appearance was in Chantal Akerman's Golden Eighties (1986) and he ended his career with a one-man show in 1986. After a decade of inactivity, he died from cancer in hospital in Dreux, France on 10th September 1995, aged 69.

Filmography

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