Robert Hossein

Actor · 1927–2020 · Paris, France

Biography

Robert Hossein was a French film actor of Parsi origin, director and writer. He directed the 1982 adaption of Les Misérables, and appeared in Vice and Virtue, Le Casse, Les Uns et les Autres and Venus Beauty Institute. His most recent roles include starring as Michèle Mercier's husband in the Angélique series and as a Catholic priest who falls in love with Claude Jade and becomes a communist in Prêtres interdits (Forbidden Priests) in 1973. Hossein started directing films in 1956 with Les salauds vont en enfer from a story by Frédéric Dard whose novels and plays went on to furnish Hossein with much of his later film material. Right from the start Hossein established his characteristic trademarks: using a seemingly straightforward suspense plot and subverting its conventions (sometimes to the extent of a complete disregard of the traditional demand for a final twist or revelation) in order to concentrate on ritualistic relationships. This is the director's running preoccupation which is always stressed in his films by an extraordinary command of film space and often striking frame compositions where the geometry of human figures and set design is used to accentuate the psychological set-up of the scene. The mechanisms of guilt and the way it destroys relationships is another recurring theme, presumably influenced by Hossein's lifelong interest in the works of Dostoyevski. Although Hossein had some modest international successes with films like Toi, le venin and Le vampire de Dusseldorf, he was much singled out for scorching criticism by the critics and followers of the New Wave for the unashamedly melodramatic frameworks of his films. The fact that he was essentially an auteur director with a consistent set of themes and an extraordinary mastery of original and unusual approaches to staging his stories, was never appreciated. He was not averse to trying his hand at widely different genres and was never defeated, making the strikingly different spaghetti western Une corde, un Colt and the low-budgeted but daringly subversive period drama J'ai tué Raspoutine. However, because of the lack of wider success and continuing adverse criticism, Hossein virtually ended his film directing career in 1970, having concentrated on theatre where his achievements were never questioned, and subsequently returning to film directing only twice. With two or three exceptions, his films remain commercially unavailable and very difficult to see. He is the son of André Hossein a Zoroastrian French composer of Azerbaijani-Tajik descent, and a Jewish comedy actress from Kiev. He was married three times: first to Marina Vlady (he has two sons with her, Pierre and Igor), later to Caroline Eliacheff (with whom he has a son, Nicholas). He is currently married to actress Candice Patou, with whom he has one son, Julien. According to an article written by Emannuel Peze, Hossein experienced a conversion to Catholicism in 1971 during a visit to the Marian apparition at San Damiano in Lombardo Italy. Description above from the Wikipedia article Robert Hossein, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Acted in 102

2020s

2025
Picking Strawberries
Movie
2022
Belmondo: The Incorrigible
Movie
Love Is Better Than Life
Robert Prat
2020
Noni : Le Fruit de l'espoir
Le grand-père d'Angeli

2000s

2009
A Man and His Dog
Un homme a la soupe populaire
58
The Little Murders of Agatha Christie
Simon
75
2007
Trivial
Antoine Bérangère
2006
Petits Meurtres en famille
Simon · 4 episodes
2005
Le Juge
Roger Marino · 2 episodes
2004
San Antonio
Le ministre de l'intérieur / The Minister
2003
Antigone
Créon

1990s

1999
Scandalous Crimes
Judge Bocchi
Venus Beauty Institute
L'aviateur
1997
The Wax Mask
Boris Volkoff
58
1995
Les Miserables
Le maître de cérémonie
1994
L'Affaire
Paul Haslans
1990
Le Gorille
Joseph Beaucis · 13 episodes

1980s

1989
Children of Chaos
Robert
1987
Levy & Goliath
Goliath customer (uncredited)
1986
A Man and a Woman: 20 Years Later
Robert Hossein
Le Caviar rouge
Alex
1983
Surprise Party
André Auerbach
1982
The Big Pardon
Manuel Carreras
1981
The Professional
Commissaire Rosen
73
Bolero
Simon Meyer / Robert Prat

1970s

1979
Démons de midi
Metteur en scène de théâtre
1975
The Phoney
Kaminsky
1974
The Protector
Arnaud
Le Tour d'Écrou
Peter Quint
1973
Prêtres interdits
Jean Rastaud
A Police Officer Without Importance
Pierre Fresse
Don Juan or If Don Juan Were a Woman
Louis Prévost
1972
A Murder Is a Murder
Jean Carouse
Hellé
Kleber
1971
The Burglars
Ralph
The Lion's Share
Maurice Ménard
Judge Roy Bean
Black Bird
1970
Falling Point
Le Caïd
Versatile Lovers
Serge Belaïeff
Time of the Wolves
Dillinger

1960s

1969
The Conspirators
Leonida Montanari
Desert Assault
Capitaine Curd Heinz (Rudi en Français)
Crime Thief
Tian
The Scarlet Lady
Julien
Misdeal
Martin von Klaus
Life Love Death
Man in the movie
Cemetery without Crosses
Manuel
The Battle of El Alamein
Erwin Rommel
53
1968
Once Upon a Time in the West
Member of Frank's Gang in Flashback (uncredited)
86
Tender Moment
Enrico Fontana
OSS 117 Murder for Sale
Dr. Saadi
Angelique and the Sultan
Joffrey de Peyrac "Le Rescator"
63
A Little Virtuous
Louis Brady
1967
Untamable Angelique
Joffrey de Peyrac, 'Le Rescator'
Lamiel
Roger Valber
The Man Who Betrayed the Mafia
Maître Bianchini
I Killed Rasputin
Serge Sukhotin
La Musica
Him
1966
Brigade Anti Gangs
Chief Commissioner Le Goff
Long March
Carnot
The Other Truth
Pierre Montaud, the Advocate
Angelique and the King
Jeoffrey de Peyrac
66
Mademoiselle de Maupin
Captain Alcibiade
1965
God's Thunder
Marcel
Marco the Magnificent
Prince Nayam
Le commissaire mène l’enquête
The lover (segment "Pour qui sonne le ...")
The Dirty Game
Dupont
The Vampire of Dusseldorf
Peter Kuerten
1964
Angelique
Jeoffrey de Peyrac
67
Marked Eyes
Franz
Why Paris?
Movie
Shadow of Evil
Dr. Sinn
62
Death of a Killer
Pierre Massa
1963
Highway Pick-Up
Daniel Boisset
Vice and Virtue
SS Oberst Erik Schörndorf
Enough Rope
Inspektor Corby
1962
Love on a Pillow
Renaud Sarti
Paris Pick-Up
Robert Herbin
71
Hitch-Hike
Edouard, le fou
1961
Madame
Le sergent François-Joseph Lefebvre
The Game of Truth
L'inspecteur de police
The Taste of Violence
Perez
The Menace
Savary
1960
The Wretches
Jess Rooland
Take Me As I Am
Ed Dawson