Actor. He was a French stage, screen and television actor. After studying at the Collège Stanislas and the Lycée Michelet, he attended the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. For it was painting that first attracted him: an admirer of Van Gogh, Brueghel and Delacroix, he wanted to follow in their footsteps. But he did not become famous as a painter. He remained in the world of the arts, however, and was attracted to the circus, where he worked for some time. In 1938 he was hired by Marcel Carné to play a small role in "Hotel du Nord". He continued to work under the big tops, then in the theater, both as a decorator and as a director. In 1941 he acted in "La Ford en folie". In this comedy show he played about fifty different characters. Louis Daquin noticed him and decided to hire him in the film he was shooting, "Madame et le Mort". The same year, he also played in Jacques Becker's "Goupi Mains Rouges". From this date, his career really started. Pierre Brasseur noticed him in this film and asked him to play in "Sainte-Cécile". This was his debut on the stage. He played eighteen plays during his career, however, the cinema remained his main activity. If most of the films were mediocre (with the exception of "Le Diable au corps", by Claude Autant-Lara), they allowed him to impose his personality and to be known by a wider audience. Between 1954 and 1958, he was seen in some notable films as "Razzia sur la chnouf" and "L'Affaire des poisons" by Henri Decoin, "French Cancan" and "Elena et les Hommes" by Jean Renoir, "Rafles sur la ville" by Pierre Chenal and "En cas de malheur" by Claude Autant-Lara. François Truffaut offered him two excellent roles in "Les Quatre Cent Coups" and "Tirez sur le pianiste". In 1961 he played King Louis XVI in "La Fayette" by Jean Dréville, a role in which he could fully use his talent and physique. The sixties were going to be cinematographically very rich for him: in addition to some French films, among others by Georges Lautner, Yves Robert, or Louis Daquin, he was going to work under the direction of three "giants" of American cinema: Vincente Minnelli, Gene Kelly, and Fred Zinnemann. Few French actors have had this opportunity. The US-cinema was going to call on him again shortly after when John Frankenheimer hired him for "The Train" in 1964 and "Grand Prix" in 1966. While his career was developing more and more, and new directors, Costa Gavras and Serge Korber, were calling on him, he died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 51. A man with many gifts: a draftsman and a decorator; he also directed a few short films (Achille le victorieux, Transports rapides, Ali en est baba). When he rested in his villa in Provence, his two hobbies were beekeeping and the architectural design of fountains.