Michel Simon
Michel Simon ( born April 9, 1895 in Geneva, Switzerland, † May 30 1975 in Bry -sur -Marne; actually François Simon ) was a Swiss actor and a monstre sacre of the French film.
Life
Michel Simon was the same year as the cinema (his comment: " Misfortunes never come alone " ), the son of a Protestant butcher born in Geneva. Early on, most of Simon to Paris, where he got by with odd jobs (such as a boxing instructor and assistant to a photographer ) and appeared as a clown and acrobat in vaudeville theaters. After a short time in the Swiss Army, which he predominantly in the arrest, where he was infected with tuberculosis, spent, encouraged him in 1915 a theater in Geneva with the troops of Georges Pitoëff on to become an actor. In 1916 he married the musician Yvonne Nadège Ryter. The marriage, which was in 1919, divorced, dates Simon's son François, who later became an actor.
1918 Simon finally joined Georges Pitoëff. In Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare, he made his debut. With Pitoeffs troops he went to Paris, where they performed at the Comédie des Champs- Élysées. Soon he was playing in Avenue pieces, musicals and vaudeville as well as in plays by Tristan Bernard, Marcel Achard and Yves Mirand. In 1929 he stood in for Pitoëff and had at the Comédie des Champs- Élysées first with Achards Jean de la lune great success. This was followed by another in pieces of Shakespeare, George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde and Luigi Pirandello.
His film debut was in 1924 in La Galerie Michel Simon of Monstre and Feu Mathias Pascal in 1925 by Marcel L' Herbier by Pirandello. In 1928, he played a judge in Carl Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc ( La passion de Jeanne d' Arc ). He had popular successes in the film adaptation of Jean de la lune - by Jean Choux (1931 ) and with his portrait of dreamy sailor " Jules " in L' Atalante (1934 ) by Jean Vigo, who lives happily with his animals ( and privately surrounded himself Simon with animals ). Even before he had played in 1932 a tramp in Boudu convincing sauvé des eaux. Began in 1931 with the bitch (La chienne ) cooperation with his friend Jean Renoir. He also played in Marcel Carnes An odd case ( Drôle de drame, 1937) and in secret from Saint- Agil (Les disparus de Saint- Agil, 1938) by Christian - Jaque. In the 1950s, he was hampered by a partial paralysis of the face, caused by an accident with a make-up means that attacked his nervous system. Nevertheless, he had continued to film successes as 1951 The monster of Sacha Guitry. The German public, he was for his music (secondary) role of the accused wrongly peddler Jacquier in Dürrenmatt adaptation It happened in broad daylight, 1958, Ladislao Vajda known with Heinz Rühmann and Gert Frobe.
Since 1965, Simon lived with the 41-year younger artist Margaret warrior. At 80, he died in a hospital in Paris of heart failure. In Grand -Lancy in Geneva, he was buried next to his parents.