Jean Gabin left school early, and worked as a laborer until the age of 19 when he entered show business with a bit part in a Folies Bergeres production.
16 Facts About Jean Gabin
2.
Jean Gabin continued performing in a variety of minor roles before going into the military.
3.
Jean Gabin was part of a troupe that toured South America, and upon returning to France found work at the Moulin Rouge.
4.
Jean Gabin's performances started getting noticed, and better stage roles came along that led to parts in two silent films in 1928.
5.
Two years later Jean Gabin made the transition to sound films in a 1930 Pathe Freres production, Chacun sa chance.
6.
Jean Gabin was then cast as a romantic hero in the 1936 war drama La Bandera; this second Duvivier-directed film established him as a major star.
7.
Undaunted, Jean Gabin joined General Charles de Gaulle's Free French Forces and earned the Medaille militaire and a Croix de Guerre for his wartime valor fighting with the Allies in North Africa.
8.
Jean Gabin disliked the screenplay and feared her German accent would not go over well with postwar French audiences.
9.
When she withdrew from the project, Jean Gabin followed suit, leading to a falling out with Carne.
10.
Jean Gabin found a French producer and director willing to cast him and Dietrich together, but the film, Martin Roumagnac, was not a success and their personal relationship soon ended.
11.
In 1948 Jean Gabin starred in Rene Clement's poetic realist film The Walls of Malapaga, which won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Picture but garnered little recognition for Jean Gabin.
12.
Jean Gabin's career seemed headed for oblivion until the 1954 film Touchez pas au grisbi, directed by Jacques Becker, earned him critical acclaim.
13.
Jean Gabin then worked with Renoir in French Cancan, with Maria Felix and Francoise Arnoul.
14.
Jean Gabin played Georges Simenon's detective Jules Maigret in three films in 1958,1959 and 1963.
15.
Jean Gabin's co-stars included such leading figures of postwar cinema as Brigitte Bardot, Alain Delon, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Louis de Funes.
16.
Jean Gabin died of leukemia at the American Hospital of Paris, in the Parisian suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine.