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Personal Info

Known For

Acting

Gender

Male

Birthday

1905-12-25

Place of Birth

Ixelles, Brabant, Belgium

Fernand Gravey

Biography

Fernand Gravey (25 December 1905 in Ixelles (Belgium) – 2 November 1970 in Paris, France), also known as Fernand Gravet in the United States, was the son of actors Georges Mertens and Fernande Depernay, who appeared in silent films produced by pioneer Belge Cinéma Film (a subsidiary of Pathé). Gravey started performing at age five under his father's direction. Before World War I, he received an education in Britain and could speak both French and English fluently, something which became useful in his movie roles. During the war, Gravey served in the British Merchant Marine Corp. In 1936, he married the French actress Jane Renouardt, who was 15 years his senior. They remained together until his death on 2 November 1970 of a heart-attack. Jane died on 3 February 1972. They had no children. Gravey performed in four films in 1913 and 1914 (as Fernand Mertens), but his first film of importance was L'Amour Chante, released in 1930. In 1933, he made Bitter Sweet, his first English language movie, which became more famous in its 1940 incarnation with Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. In 1937, after several more French and British movies, Gravey went to Hollywood, where the spelling of his last name was altered to Gravet, and he became the focus of a rather extensive Hollywood publicity campaign (instructing moviegoers to pronounce his name properly: "Rhymes with Gravy"). Unfortunately for Gravey, he was offered only standard parts, the type of Gallic-lover roles that Louis Jourdan played in the 1950s and 1960s. The first two films he made in Hollywood were for Warner Brothers: The King and the Chorus Girl (1937), with Joan Blondell and Jane Wyman, and Fools for Scandal (1938), with Carole Lombard and Ralph Bellamy. Gravey then signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and was cast as Johann Strauss in the expensive biopic The Great Waltz, with Luise Rainer and Miliza Korjus. MGM next planned to star Gravey in a film version of Rafael Sabatini's adventure novel Scaramouche, but instead he returned to France just before the Nazi occupation began. Although he had agreed to appear in German-approved French films, Gravey was an underminer of the invaders as a member of the French Secret Army and the Foreign Legion. At the end of the war, Gravey was considered a war hero, and continued to be featured in French productions such as La Ronde (with Danielle Darrieux), and Royal Affairs in Versailles (1954). Among his last English language performances were How to Steal a Million (1966), Guns for San Sebastian (1968) and The Madwoman of Chaillot (1969), in which he played the police inspector. Source: Article "Fernand Gravey" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Known for

Discorama

Discorama

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Cinépanorama

Cinépanorama

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MGM Parade

MGM Parade

The original concept of the show was to allow the viewer to see the inner workings of a movie studio and featured interviews with MGM stars and explanations of how movies were made. Later, the format changed to show edited versions of MGM films.

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The Hideout

The Hideout

A jewel thief hides his loot in a WELL while escaping. He returns several years later only to find there is a Resort on the site and the well is the centerpiece of the place. He then has to find a way to retrieve his haul.

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La Maison des bois

La Maison des bois

During the Great War, in a small rural French village far from the front, a gamekeeper and his wife take in children displaced by the war.

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How to Steal a Million

How to Steal a Million

A woman must steal a statue from a Paris museum to help conceal her father's art forgeries.

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Four Flights to Love

Four Flights to Love

In pre-World Ward I in Paris, a budding artist, Pierre LeBlanc, falls in love and marries Janine, a dressmaker's assistant. Pierre has a flair for designing clothes, and he and his bride live in a blissful paradise, until the war breaks out and he becomes a soldier. Janine dies in childbirth and, no longer desiring to live, Pierre volunteers for a dangerous patrol behind German lines. While recuperating in the hospital from a wound he received on the mission, Pierre spends his time drawing sketches of dresses. He becomes rich and famous after the war. Years later, after devoting himself to his daughter, Pierre seeks a marriage with a girl no older than his daughter. A conflict develops and to ensure his daughter's happiness, Pierre sacrifices his own plans.

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Give Her the Moon

Give Her the Moon

Marie, a young provincial girl, is seduced by an American billionaire. She agrees to stay with him if he moves her village to New York.

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Harry's Girls

Harry's Girls

Harry's Girls is an American situation comedy which appeared on NBC from September 13, 1963, to January 3, 1964. The series stars Larry Blyden portraying Henry Burns, the leader of a vaudeville troupe consisting of three young women. The co-stars were Dawn Nickerson as Lois, Susan Silo as Rusty, and Diahn Williams as Terry.

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Guns for San Sebastian

Guns for San Sebastian

Leon Alastray is an outlaw who has been given sanctuary by Father John, whom he then escorts to the village of San Sebastian. The village is deserted, with its cowardly residents hiding in the hills from Indians, who regularly attack the village and steal all their supplies. When Father John is murdered, the villagers mistakenly think the outlaw is the priest. Alastray at first tells them he is not a priest, but they don't believe it, and an apparent miracle seems to prove they are correct. Eventually, he assists them in regaining their confidence and defending themselves.

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Thirteen at the Table

Thirteen at the Table

Madeleine Villardier is terribly superstitious, and she's in a lot of trouble for the New Year's Eve party she's planning. Inexorably, the number of guests is down to thirteen. To add to her dismay, the presence under her roof of a certain Consuelo is proving cumbersome, especially as this lady has revelations to make about Antoine Villardier's stormy past. The mistress of the house's trances alternate with marital explanations. But why not consider the fateful number as a lucky charm?

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Pas moral pour deux sous

Pas moral pour deux sous

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Slightly Ahead

Slightly Ahead

A brilliant swindler, Olivier Parker, hires a small-time pipe salesman, Amédée, to swindle a naive provincial, Ferdinand Galiveau, a chicken merchant. Renamed Teddy Morton and now a jockey, Amédée must ride a mare on which Ferdinand, advised by Parker, must bet. Absolutely convinced of his mystification, Parker bets on an oddball who, of course, loses, while at the last minute Galiveau, having bet on an outsider, wins a fortune. All Parker has to do is find another sucker.

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Fanfare of Love

Fanfare of Love

Two unemployed musicians dress up as women to be hired by an all-female orchestra called "Tulips from Holland"; they fall in love with two gorgeous musicians.

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Seven Men, One Woman

Seven Men, One Woman

At the urging of her childhood friend Brémontier, Lucie de Kéradec, a wealthy widowed countess who wishes to remarry, invites all of her seven suitors to her mansion. Her untold intention is to test them by claiming to be ruined. The experience is a success in that each of the potential husbands reveals his inner nature but a failure when it comes to finding a new life partner. None of the guests passes the test except - the eighth man, namely Brémontier who loved Lucie in secret but, being penniless, had not dared declare his flame to her.

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