Queer Places:
Cimetière de Ramatuelle
Ramatuelle, Departement du Var, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France
Gérard Philipe (born Gérard Albert Philip, 4 December 1922 – 25 November 1959) was a prominent French actor who appeared in 32 films between 1944 and 1959. Active in both theater and cinema, he was, until his early death, one of the main stars of the post-war period. His image has remained youthful and romantic, which has made him one of the icons of French cinema.
During the post-WWII period, the French theatre was
dominated by Jean Cocteau's circle, including the stage designer
Christian
Bérard and the actor Jean Marais; the bisexual
Gérard Philipe was everyone's favorite leading man. The foremost members
of the Comedic Francaise, such as Jean Weber and
Jacques Charon,
were familiar faces at gay salons. Julien Green's monumental Sud
(South, 1953)
clothed his doomed love story in Civil War garb and veiled suggestion; the
agony of unrequited affection went even deeper in
Henry de Montherlant's La Ville
dont le Prince en un Enfant (The City Whose Prince Is a Child, 1951), set
in a Catholic school where an obsessive priest roots out the special
friendships of the students. Typically, the secretive and suicidal Montherlant
considered it unsuitable for public performance by boys.
Born Gérard Albert Philip[1] in Cannes in a well-off family, he was of one-quarter Czech ancestry from his maternal grandmother.[2] His father, Marcel Philip (1893–1973), was a barrister and businessman in Cannes; his mother was Maria Elisa "Minou" Philip, née Vilette (1894–1970). On his mother's advice, in 1944 Gérard changed his surname from "Philip" to "Philipe".
As a teenager, Philipe took acting lessons before going to Paris to study at the Conservatoire of Dramatic Art.
Philipe made his film debut in Les Petites du quai aux fleurs (1943), directed by
Marc Allégret, in an uncredited role.
He had a minor role in Box of Dreams (1945) then was third billed in Land Without Stars (1946) after Jani Holt and Pierre Brasseur; George Lacombe wrote and directed.[3]
When he was 19 years old, he made his stage debut at a theater in Nice; and the following year his strong performance in the Albert Camus play Caligula made his reputation.[4]
Philipe had a lead role in The Idiot (1946), an adaptation of the novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky, co-starring Edwige Feuillère for director Georges Lampin. This was seen in other countries and established Philipe as a leading man. He was in Ouvert pour cause d'inventaire (1946), a short film that was an early work for Alain Renais.[5][6]
He was invited to work with the Théâtre national populaire (T.N.P.) in Paris and Avignon, whose festival, founded in 1947 by Jean Vilar, is France's oldest and most famous.
Philipe gained fame as a result of his performance in Claude Autant-Lara's Devil in the Flesh (1947), alongside Micheline Presle.[7] It was a huge box office success.[8]
He went on to star in La Chartreuse de Parme (1948) for director Christian-Jacque, which was even more popular than Devil in the Flesh. He followed it with Such a Pretty Little Beach (1949) for Yves Allégret; All Roads Lead to Rome (1949), a reunion with Presle, for Jean Boyer; and Beauty and the Devil (1950) for René Clair.[8]
Philipe was one of several stars in Max Ophüls' version of La Ronde (1950). He followed it with another all-star film, Lost Souvenirs (1951) for Christian-Jacques.
In 1951, Philipe married Nicole Fourcade (1917–1990), an actress/writer, with whom he had two children. She adopted the pseudonym, Anne Philipe, and wrote about her husband in two books, the first called Souvenirs (1960) and a second biography titled Le Temps d'un soupir (No Longer Than a Sigh, 1963).
Philipe was in Juliette, or Key of Dreams (1951) with Suzanne Cloutier for Marcel Carné; The Seven Deadly Sins (1952), an all-star anthology film; and Fan Fan the Tulip (1953), a swashbuckling adventure with Gina Lollobrigida for Christian-Jacque which was very popular.[9][10]
He was in Beauties of the Night (1952), again with Lollobrigida, and Martine Carol, directed by Clair; The Proud and the Beautiful (1953) with Michèle Morgan; two more all-star anthologies: It Happened in the Park (1953) and Royal Affairs in Versailles (1954).
Philipe tried an English movie, Lovers, Happy Lovers! (1954, also known as Knave of Hearts), directed by René Clément and co-starring Valerie Hobson.
He then did The Red and the Black (1954) with Danielle Darrieux and had a big success with The Grand Maneuver (1955) for René Clair, co-starring Morgan.[8]
Philipe did The Best Part (1956) for Yves Allégret and was one of many stars in If Paris Were Told to Us (1956).
He wrote, directed and starred in Bold Adventure (1956), a comic adventure film.[11]
He starred in Lovers of Paris (1957) for Julien Duvivier and Montparnasse 19 (1958) for Jacques Becker. He was one of many stars in Life Together (1958) and top billed in The Gambler (1958).
In 1958 he went to New York and performed on Broadway in the all-French Lorenzaccio and Le Cid.
Philipe played Valmont in Roger Vadim's modern day version of Les liaisons dangereuses (1959), appearing alongside Jeanne Moreau.[12]
His last film was Fever Mounts at El Pao (1960) for Luis Buñuel.[13]
He died from liver cancer while working on a film project in Paris, a few days short of his 37th birthday. (His doctors concealed from him the nature of his disease.) In accordance with his last wishes, he is buried, dressed in the costume of Don Rodrigue (The Cid), in the village cemetery in Ramatuelle, Var, near the Mediterranean coast.[14]
To commemorate the centenary of the cinema in 1995, the French government issued a series of limited edition coins that included a 100 franc coin bearing the image of Philipe. Among the most popular French actors of modern times, he has been elevated to mythic status in his homeland, not least because of his early death at the peak of his popularity.
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