Gérard Philipe

Friend from theater school with writer Georges Perros (1923-1978) on which his son in law Jérôme Garcin did a TV documentary.

In 1940 Gerard left school and his parents wanted him be a lawyer. But soon his mother noticed that he was only interested in acting, although his father was against the idea. After timely intervention from Marc Allégret, who decided he showed some promise, Gerard's debut was in Claude Dauphin's play "One plain girl". After this, Gerard decided to get into the conservatory. He was wonder even in music. He himself used to find necessary sounds - exact, unexpected, and unforeseen. All this helped him to portray amazing characters. Millions of people were inspired by him.

Introduced to the stage in 1942 by actor Claude Dauphin. Rave reviews in a 1945 production of "Caligula" opened the doors for him to film stardom.

One day Georges Lacombe offered Philipe a part in his movie Le pays sans étoiles (1946).

Critical reaction was very favourable and he became a star, taking on prominent roles in films such as L'idiot (1946), Devil in the Flesh (1947), La Chartreuse de Parme (1948), Une si jolie petite plage (1949), Juliette ou La clef des songes (1951), FanFan la Tulipe (1952), Beauties of the Night (1952), Le rouge et le noir (1954), La meilleure part (1955) and Le joueur (1958).

In 1951 Gerard Philipe married Annie. He dreamed of his own home and family, children.

Their first child, Ann-Marie, was born in 1954, and in 1956 came Olivie.

Founding president in 1957 of the Comité National des Acteurs for which he also gave money.

In 1959 Gerard returned to France. He seemed to be very tired. Doctors then gave him the bad news that he had a liver cancer. "He'll live 15 days or 6 months", - they decided. After that Gerard waited for death very calmly.