Pierre Fresnay
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Pierre Fresnay (April 4, 1897 - January 9, 1975) was a French stage and film actor.
Born Pierre Jules Louis Laudenbach in Paris, France, he was encouraged by his uncle, the actor Claude Garry, to pursue a career in theater and film.
Fresnay performed on stage and became one of the most important film actors of his era. He appeared in more than sixty films, eight of which were with Yvonne Printemps, with whom he lived since 1934. One of his most notable films was the 1937 epic Grand Illusion directed by Jean Renoir. He also portrayed Nobel Peace Prize laureate Albert Schweitzer in Il est minuit, Docteur Schweitzer (1952).
A soldier in the French Army during World War I, he returned to his career a hero. However, under the German occupation of World War II, Fresnay worked for a Franco-German film company. After the war, he was detained in prison while allegations of collaboration were investigated. After being held for several weeks, he was released as a result of a lack of evidence.
His popularity with the public then declined. Pierre Fresnay continued to perform regularly in film and on stage through to the 1960s. In the 70s, he appeared in a few films for television.
He lived together with the French actress and singer Yvonne Printemps for the rest of his life. He died of respiratory problems at the age of seventy-seven at Neuilly-sur-Seine and is interred there side by side with Yvonne in the Neuilly-sur-Seine community cemetery.
Asked how to say his name, he told The Literary Digest "I think my name is to be pronounced fray-nay. At least, it is the way I pronounce it." (Charles Earle Funk, What's the Name, Please?, Funk & Wagnalls, 1936.)
