43 Facts About Maurice Chevalier

Maurice Chevalier's trademark attire was a boater hat and tuxedo.

Maurice Chevalier made his name as a star of musical comedy, appearing in public as a singer and dancer at an early age before working in menial jobs as a teenager.

Maurice Chevalier developed an interest in acting and had success in Dede.

Maurice Chevalier died in Paris, on 1 January 1972, from complications of a suicide attempt.

Maurice Chevalier had two brothers, Charles and Paul.

Maurice Chevalier tried a number of other jobs: a carpenter's apprentice, an electrician, a printer, and even as a doll painter.

Maurice Chevalier was eventually able to hold down a job at a mattress factory, and became interested in performing; while daydreaming his finger was crushed in a machine and he was forced to stop working.

Maurice Chevalier performed his first song there, V'la Les Croquants, although his performance was met with laughter as he had sung three octaves too high.

Discouraged, Maurice Chevalier returned home, where his mother and brother Paul encouraged him to continue practicing.

Maurice Chevalier continued singing, unpaid, at the cafe until a member of the theatre saw him and suggested he try for a local musical.

Maurice Chevalier got the part, and began to make a name as a mimic and a singer.

Maurice Chevalier's act in l'Alcazar in Marseille was so successful, on his return to Paris he was met by an admiring crowd.

When World War I broke out, Maurice Chevalier was in the middle of his national service, already in the front line, where he was wounded by shrapnel in the back in the first weeks of combat and was taken as a prisoner of war in Germany for two years, where he learned English.

In 1917, Maurice Chevalier became a star in le Casino de Paris and played before British soldiers and Americans.

Maurice Chevalier discovered jazz and ragtime and started thinking about touring the United States.

Maurice Chevalier went to London, where he found new success at the Palace Theatre, even though he still sang in French.

Maurice Chevalier played in a few pictures, including Chaplin's A Woman of Paris, a rare drama for Chaplin, in which his character of The Tramp does not appear, and made an impression in the operetta Dede.

Maurice Chevalier met the American composers George Gershwin and Irving Berlin and brought Dede to Broadway in 1922.

When Douglas Fairbanks was on honeymoon in Paris in 1920, he offered him star billing with his new wife Mary Pickford, but Maurice Chevalier doubted his own talent for silent movies.

Maurice Chevalier signed a contract with Paramount Pictures and played his first American role in Innocents of Paris.

Maurice Chevalier appeared in Paramount's all-star revue film Paramount on Parade.

In 1931, Maurice Chevalier starred in a musical called The Smiling Lieutenant with Claudette Colbert and Miriam Hopkins.

Maurice Chevalier then signed with MGM for The Man from the Folies Bergere, his own favourite of his films.

Boyer in particular introduced him to art galleries and good literature, and Maurice Chevalier would try to copy him as the man of taste.

Maurice Chevalier had several successes, such as his revue Paris en Joie in the Casino de Paris.

Maurice Chevalier continued performing for as long as he could freely, retreating to the free zone in the south of France with his Jewish wife and her parents as well as some friends following the 1940 invasion by German Nazi troops.

Maurice Chevalier consistently refused to perform for the Vichy France collaborators, and feigned illness, but eventually, out of fear for the safety of his wife and her parents, he reluctantly agreed to a deal.

Maurice Chevalier refused to perform on the collaborating station Radio Paris, but agreed to perform for prisoners of war at the very camp in which he had been incarcerated during World War I The performance was given in exchange for the release of ten French prisoners.

In 1942, Maurice Chevalier was named on a list of French collaborators with Germany to be killed during the war, or tried after it.

In 1944 when Allied forces freed France, Maurice Chevalier was accused of collaboration.

Maurice Chevalier started to collect and paint art, and acted in Le silence est d'or by Rene Clair.

Maurice Chevalier toured throughout the United States and other parts of the world, then returned to France in 1948.

Maurice Chevalier was therefore even less popular in the US during the McCarthyism period; in 1951, he was refused re-entry into the US because he had signed the Stockholm Appeal.

Also in 1949, Maurice Chevalier was the subject of the first official roast at the New York Friars' Club, although celebrities had been informally "roasted" at banquets since 1910.

Maurice Chevalier started a relationship in 1952 with Janie Michels, a young divorcee with three children.

In 1954, after the McCarthy era abated, Maurice Chevalier was welcomed back in the United States.

In 1957, Maurice Chevalier was awarded The George Eastman Award, given by George Eastman House for distinguished contribution to the art of film.

Maurice Chevalier appeared in the movie musical Gigi with Leslie Caron and Hermione Gingold, with whom he shared the song "I Remember It Well", and several Walt Disney films.

Maurice Chevalier appeared as himself in an episode of The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, titled "Lucy Goes to Mexico".

Historical newsreel footage of Maurice Chevalier appeared in the 1969 Marcel Ophuls documentary The Sorrow and the Pity.

Maurice Chevalier suffered from bouts of depression throughout his adult life.

Maurice Chevalier is interred in the cemetery of Marnes-la-Coquette in Hauts-de-Seine, outside Paris, France with his mother, "La Louque".

Maurice Chevalier has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1651 Vine Street.