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Maurice Chevalier

Maurice Chevalier

Birthday: 1888-09-12 | Place of Birth: Paris, France

Maurice Auguste Chevalier (September 12, 1888 – January 1, 1972) was a French actor, cabaret singer and entertainer. He is perhaps best known for his signature songs, including "Livin' In The Sunlight", "Valentine", "Louise", "Mimi", and "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" and for his films, including The Love Parade, The Big Pond, The Smiling Lieutenant, One Hour with You and Love Me Tonight. His trademark attire was a boater hat and tuxedo. Chevalier was born in Paris. He made his name as a star of musical comedy, appearing in public as a singer and dancer at an early age before working in menial jobs as a teenager. In 1909, he became the partner of the biggest female star in France at the time, Fréhel. Although their relationship was brief, she secured him his first major engagement, as a mimic and a singer in l'Alcazar in Marseille, for which he received critical acclaim by French theatre critics. In 1917, he discovered jazz and ragtime and went to London, where he found new success at the Palace Theatre. After this, he toured the United States, where he met the American composers George Gershwin and Irving Berlin and brought the operetta Dédé to Broadway in 1922. He developed an interest in acting and had success in Dédé. When talkies arrived, he went to Hollywood in 1928, where he played his first American role in Innocents of Paris. In 1930, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his roles in The Love Parade (1929) and The Big Pond (1930), which secured his first big American hits, "You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me" and "Livin' in the Sunlight, Lovin' in the Moonlight". In 1957, he appeared in Love in the Afternoon, which was his first Hollywood film in more than 20 years. In 1958, he starred with Leslie Caron and Louis Jourdan in Gigi. In the early 1960s, he made eight films, including Can-Can in 1960 and Fanny the following year. In 1970, he made his final contribution to the film industry where he sang the title song of the Disney film The Aristocats. Description above from the Wikipedia article Maurice Chevalier, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

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Known For

Acting

Year
Title

Role

2021
Rendez-vous With Maurice Chevalier

as    Self - Entertainer (archive footage)

1967
Monkeys, Go Home!

as    Father Sylvain

1963
A New Kind of Love

as    Self

1962
Jessica

as    Father Antonio

1962
In Search of the Castaways

as    Jacques Paganel

1961
Fanny

as    Panisse

1960
Pepe

as    Maurice Chevalier

1960
Can-Can

as    Paul Barriere

1958
Gigi

as    Honoré Lachaille

1957
Love in the Afternoon

as    Claude Chavasse

1939
Personal Column

as    Robert Fleury

1938
Break the News

as    François Verrier

1936
With a Smile

as    Victor Larnois

1935
Folies Bergère

as    Eugene Charlier / Baron Cassini

1935
Folies Bergère

as    Eugene Charlier / Baron Fernand Cassini

1934
The Merry Widow

as    Count Danilo

1933
A Bedtime Story

as    Monsieur Rene

1932
One Hour with You

as    Dr. Andre Bertier

1932
Love Me Tonight

as    Maurice 'Baron' Courtelin

1931
The Smiling Lieutenant

as    Lt. Nikolaus 'Niki' von Preyn

1930
Playboy of Paris

as    Albert Loriflan

1930
Paramount on Parade

as    Apache

1930
The Love Parade

as    Count Alfred Renard

1930
The Big Pond

as    Pierre Mirande

1929
Innocents of Paris

as    Maurice Marney