Sacha Guitry

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Sacha Guitry (February 21, 1885 – July 24, 1957) was a French film actor, director and screenwriter and playwright.

[edit] Biography

Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, he was the son of Lucien Germain Guitry (1860–1925), a major Parisian stage actor who spent nine years at the Michel Theater, in St. Petersburg, before returning to France. It was during this time in Russia that Alexandre-Pierre Georges Guitry was born and nicknamed Sacha. As a five year old, he appeared on stage with his father. An intellect and a prolific writer with a sharp wit, by the age of 17 Guitry had already written the first of his 120 plays. In 1918 his theatrical production premiered in Paris to critical acclaim. Guitry's dramas include Nono (1905), Deburau (1918) and "Jean de la Fontaine" in 1922. Also famous are Quadrille, Tôa, N'écoutez Pas Mesdames, Désiré, Faisons un Rêve, Le Nouveau Testament, Beaumarchais and 100 others.

A prominent member of Parisian society, in 1919 Guitry married singing star Yvonne Printemps. Together they performed in a number of his plays, bringing the extremely popular 1925 production of Mozart to cities in North America, including New York City, Montreal, Quebec and Boston, Massachusetts. 7 Revues were written with Albert Willemetz, his best friend.

In addition to his famous plays, Sacha Guitry wrote and acted in many early films and in 1935 directed for the first time. He went on to be recognized as one of the truly innovative directors, sometimes compared to Orson Welles because of his techniques and numerous innovations. Of the 30 films he directed, some of his most recognized are The Story of a Cheat (1937), Pearls of the Crown (1938) and Royal Affair in Versailles in 1953.

Sacha Guitry is interred with his father, brother and his fifth wife in the Cimetière de Montmartre, in the Parisian neighborhood of Montmartre.

In 1931, the government of France awarded him the Legion of Honor. He was also a member of the Académie Goncourt. Following World War II he spent sixty days in prison for suspected collaboration with the Nazis, but a post-War court cleared him completely of all the charges, and historians make clear now he had nothing to do with collaboration and even helped many people.

He died in Paris in 1957. After his passing, a street was named in his honor in Paris and the city of Nice, France and Radio France named a studio for him.