Jaque Catelain

Personal Info

Known For Actor

Gender Male

Birthday 1897-02-09

Deathday 1965-03-05 (68 years old)

Place of Birth Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Yvelines, France

Also Known As Jacques Guérin-Castelain, Jaque-Catelain, Jacques Catelain, Jacques Catelin, Jacque Cathelain

Jaque Catelain

Biography

Jaque Catelain was a French actor who came to prominence in silent films of the 1920s, and who continued acting in films and on stage until the 1950s. He also wrote and directed two silent films himself and was a capable artist and musician. He had a close association with the director Marcel L'Herbier. He was born as Jacques Guérin-Castelain in Saint-Germain-en-Laye. His father was then the mayor and also moved in literary and theatrical circles, which allowed the young Jacques to encounter many famous names in his childhood. He showed early enthusiasm for the arts and music, and at the age of 16 he entered the Académie Julian in Paris to study fine arts. With the outbreak of war in the following year, he changed direction and chose to study acting at the Conservatoire, enrolling in the class of Paul Mounet, before being mobilised into the artillery. In 1914 Catelain met Marcel L'Herbier, then a writer and critic, who became a major influence on his life and career, and with whom he formed a lifelong friendship. When L'Herbier began directing films in 1917, Catelain became his leading man of choice and starred in twelve of his silent films, starting with Le Torrent, and they made Catelain into a leading star who was in demand to appear in foreign films as well as in productions of other French directors. In 1925 he was offered a seven-year contract by MGM to work in America, but he turned this down. Jaque Catelain's activities in this period extended beyond acting. When Marcel L'Herbier set up his own production company Cinégraphic in 1922, its first project became Le Marchand de plaisirs which Catelain directed as well as acting a double role in it. In the following year he wrote and directed La Galerie des monstres (1923/24). Both films were successful enough to cover their costs. He devised controversial make-up for some of the actors in L'Inhumaine, and his artistic skills were put to further use in two set designs for L'Argent. As a pianist he would sometimes step in to provide improvised accompaniment for previews of L'Herbier's films. Catelain successfully made the transition from silent to sound films, starring in L'Herbier's L'Enfant de l'amour (1929), but during the 1930s he took fewer leading film roles and started to act in the theatre. In February 1933 he married Suzanne Vial, a friend since childhood who had become a production assistant to L'Herbier in the 1920s and continued working with him until 1944. Soon afterwards in 1933/1934 he was employed by the daily newspaper Le Journal to go to Hollywood to carry out a series of interviews with leading personalities such as Chaplin, Stroheim and Sternberg. In May 1940, Catelain left France for a four-month theatrical tour of South America, but within a month France was occupied by the Germans and his absence lasted for six years. In Buenos Aires he became so ill with pneumonia that he was given the last rites, but he recovered and went to Canada for the next three years for work in the theatre and propaganda broadcasts. In 1943 he was invited to Hollywood and remained there for a further three years. He returned to Paris in 1946, and resumed an occasional career in films, appearing in minor roles in three of Jean Renoir's films in the 1950s. In 1950, he published a biography and appreciation of the work of Marcel L'Herbier. Catelain died in Paris in 1965.

Known For

Actor

1960
Experiment in Evil

as L'ambassadeur

1955
French Cancan

as Le ministre (uncredited)

1950
1950
1948
Stolen Affections

as Christian Darbel

1940
Comedy of Happiness

as Le directeur de Radio Azur (uncredited)

1939
Cordial Agreement

as Le prince consort

1938
La Marseillaise

as Capitaine Langlade

1936
The Tomboy

as Georges Blanchet

1934
Le Bonheur

as Geoffroy de Chabré

1933
Dream Castle

as Prince Mirano

1931
The Dream

as Félicien

1930
Illegitimate Child

as Maurice Orland

1929
Princely Nights

as Vassia

1928
The West

as Arnaud de Saint-Guil

1928
Little Devil May Care

as Delphin Leherg - le fils de Leherg qu'aime Ludivine

1927
1926
Le Vertige

as Henri de Cassel - le sosie de Dimitrieff, abattu par Svirsky

1925
1924
L'Inhumaine

as Einar Norsen

1924
1923
Le marchand de plaisirs

as Gosta / Donald

1923
The Secret Spring

as Professeur Raoul Vignerte

1922
Don Juan et Faust

as Don Juan de Manara

1921
El Dorado

as Hedwick

1921
1920
1920
1919
Rose-France

as Laurs

Director

1924
1923

Art

1919
Rose-France

as Production Design

Editor

1920