Gérard Oury

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Gérard Oury (born April 29, 1919, Paris, died July 20, 2006, Saint-Tropez) was a French actor, writer and producer. His real name was Max-Gérard Tannenbaum.

[edit] A commercially successful French filmmaker

The son of a pianist and journalist, Oury studied at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art. He became a member of the Comédie-Française, just one year before World War II, but fled to Switzerland to escape the anti-Jewish laws decreed by the Vichy government.

After 1945, he re-started his career as an actor, playing at theatre and in second-role in cinema. He became a movie director in 1959 (The Itchy Palm), and gained his first success in 1961, with Crime Does Not Pay (Le crime ne paie pas).

Joining Bourvil and Louis de Funès as a comic duo, he burst into commercial filmmaking with The Sucker (Le corniaud), followed three years after by Don't Look Now - We're Being Shot At (La Grande Vadrouille), drawing the largest audiences ever in France, only later surpassed by Titanic from James Cameron.

Living together with the French actress Michèle Morgan, he was the father of French writer Danièle Thompson and grandfather of actor/writer Christopher Thompson.

[edit] Filmography as director

Le Schpountz (1999)
Fantôme avec chauffeur (1996)
The Thirst for Gold (1993)
Vanille fraise (1989)
Levy and Goliath (1987)
The Vengeance of the Winged Serpent (La Vengeance du serpent à plumes) (1984)
Ace of Aces (L'As des as) (1982)
Umbrella Coup (1980)
Out of It (1978)
The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob (Les Aventures de Rabbi Jacob) (1973)
Delusions of Grandeur (La Folie des grandeurs) (1971)
The Brain (1969)
Don't Look Now - We're Being Shot At (La Grande Vadrouille) (1966)
The Sucker (Le Corniaud) (1965)
Crime Does Not Pay (1962)
The Itchy Palm (1960)
The Menace (1960)