17 Facts About Jaque Catelain

Jaque Catelain was a French actor who came to prominence in silent films of the 1920s, and who continued acting in films and on stage until the 1950s.

Jaque Catelain wrote and directed two silent films himself, and he was a capable artist and musician.

Jaque Catelain had a close association with the director Marcel L'Herbier.

Jaque Catelain was born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye in the Pavillon Henri IV.

Jaque Catelain showed early enthusiasm for the arts and music, and at the age of 16 he entered the Academie Julian in Paris to study fine arts.

In 1914 Catelain met Marcel L'Herbier, then a writer and critic, who became a major influence on his life and career, and with whom he formed a lifelong friendship.

When L'Herbier began directing films in 1917, Jaque Catelain became his leading man of choice and starred in twelve of his silent films, starting with Le Torrent.

Jaque Catelain had already worked as an editor on L'Homme du large, and when Marcel L'Herbier set up his own production company Cinegraphic in 1922, its first project became Le Marchand de plaisirs which Catelain directed as well as acting a double role in it.

Jaque Catelain devised controversial make-up for some of the actors in L'Inhumaine, and his artistic skills were put to further use in two set designs for L'Argent As a pianist he would sometimes step in to provide improvised accompaniment for previews of L'Herbier's films.

Jaque Catelain successfully made the transition from silent to sound films, starring in L'Herbier's L'Enfant de l'amour, but during the 1930s he took fewer leading film roles and started to act in the theatre.

In February 1933 Jaque Catelain married Suzanne Vial, a friend since childhood who had become a production assistant to L'Herbier in the 1920s and continued working with him until 1944.

In May 1940, Jaque Catelain left France for a four-month theatrical tour of South America, but within a month France was occupied by the Germans and his absence lasted for six years.

Jaque Catelain returned to Paris in 1946, and resumed an occasional career in films, appearing in minor roles in three of Jean Renoir's films in the 1950s.

Jaque Catelain died in Paris in 1965, and he was buried in Passy Cemetery.

Jaque Catelain won considerable popularity in the early 1920s through his film roles as romantic lead or jeune premier.

Jaque Catelain's good looks were of a rather bland and pretty kind which did not commend him so much to later audiences, and he was often criticised for wooden and inexpressive performances.

Jaque Catelain himself was sufficiently thoughtful on the subject of acting to develop his views about the differences between 'interior' and 'exterior' performance in a journal article published in 1925.