Gabriel Axel

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Gabriel Axel (b. 1918) Oscar winning Danish director, actor, writer, and producer, best known for writing the screenplay for and directing Babette's Feast (1987).

Born in Århus, Denmark, on April 18, 1918, Axel spent most of his childhood in France, and returned to Denmark to train as an actor at the Royal Danish Theatre. After spending some years in Paris, working with the Louis Jouvet theatre ensemble, Axel concentrated his efforts on directing for the theatre, television and film in Denmark. With some 16 feature films to his credits (including his film, The Red Mantle (1967), which received the Grand Prix de la Technique at the Cannes Film Festival in 1967), Axel returned to France where he directed several large projects for television, which brought him a number of distinguished honours. In 1988, Gabriel Axel won an Academy Award for his Danish feature film Babette's Feast, an adaptation of Isak Dinesen's novel of the same name.