Daniel Gélin

Actor · 1921–2002 · Angers, Maine-et-Loire, France

Biography

Daniel Yves Alfred Gélin (19 May 1921 – 29 November 2002) was a French actor. Gélin was born in Angers, Maine-et-Loire, the son of Yvonne (née Le Méner) and Alfred Ernest Joseph Gélin. When he was ten, his family moved to Saint-Malo where Daniel went to college until he was expelled for 'uncouthness'. His father then found him a job in a shop that sold cans of salted cod. It was seeing the shooting of Marc Allégret's film Entrée des artistes that triggered his desire to go to Paris to train to be an actor. He trained at the Cours Simon in Paris before entering the Conservatoire national d'art dramatique. There he met Louis Jouvet and embarked on a theatrical career. He made his first film appearance in 1940 in Miquette and for several years was an extra or played small roles in French films. He appeared with Jean Gabin and Marlene Dietrich in Martin Roumagnac (1946). He won his first leading role in Rendez-vous de juillet (1949). From that time, he went on to appear in more than 150 films, including Max Ophüls' films La Ronde (1950) and Le Plaisir (1952), Jacques Becker's Édouard et Caroline (1951), Sacha Guitry's films Si Versailles m'était conté (Royal Affairs in Versailles) (1954) and Napoléon (1955), Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), Jean Cocteau's Le Testament d'Orphée (1960), Le souffle au cœur (Murmur of the Heart) (1971), and La Nuit de Varennes (That Night in Varennes) (1982). He also wrote and directed one film, The Long Teeth, in 1952. Gélin was a leading man in French cinema during the 1950s, but his career declined with the coming of the New Wave. He worked in theater for several years, but later found new success on screen as a character actor. He appeared extensively in French films and television productions from the 1970s until his death, often playing cynical characters or grumpy old men. In 1946, Gélin married actress Danièle Delorme with whom he had a son, actor, director and producer Xavier Gélin. They divorced in 1954. While still married to Delorme, he had an affair with 17 year old model Marie Christine Schneider that produced a daughter, Maria Schneider. Due to his status as a married man, Gélin could not recognize Maria as his daughter. He visited the child several times but eventually severed his relationship with her mother. Maria Schneider and Daniel Gélin reconnected when she was sixteen and came to visit him. They remained in contact, although their relationship was irregular. Gélin was married to model Sylvie Hirsch from 1954 until their divorce in 1968. This marriage produced three children, Pascal (who died aged one year), Fiona , and Manuel, the latter two also becoming actors. In 1973, he remarried to Lydie Zaks with whom he had a daughter, Laura. Gélin died in Paris on 29 November 2002 of kidney failure. Source: Article "Daniel Gélin" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Acted in 133

2020s

2022
Belmondo: The Incorrigible
Movie

2000s

2002
À l'abri des regards indiscrets
Abdel-Robert

1990s

1997
Une femme d'action
Charles
Obsession
Xavier Favre
1996
Men, Women: A User's Manual
le veuf
Les Bidochon
Le père Bidochon
Ghost with Driver
Le passeur (Le guide céleste)
1995
Runaways
Bruno
1994
Pushing the Limits
Le père de Fiona
Fear City: A Family-Style Comedy
Mr. Mireille, the 2nd projectionist
75
Poorly Extinguished Fires
The gentleman from the beach
1993
Roulez jeunesse !
Jean Moulinier
Coup de jeune
Gaudeamus at 70
1991
Maigret
Le père Nicolas · 1 episode
79
Un type bien
Docteur Avril
The Professional Secrets of Dr. Apfelgluck
Roland Grumaud
Mauvaise fille
Fernand
1990
Promotion canapé
Le responsable des inspecteurs de la Justice
Mr. Frost
Simon Scolari
53

1980s

1989
The summer of all sorrows
papy
1988
Itinerary of a Spoiled Child
Pierre Duvivier, Albert's father
Life Is a Long Quiet River
Docteur Mavial
68
Dandin
Monsieur de Sotenville
1987
Marc et Sophie
Edmond, le beau-père · 220 episodes
Public Security
Martino Morando
Via Montenapoleone
padre di Elena
The Legacy of Guldenburgs
Gregor Baschkurin · 1 episode
1986
Le Tiroir secret
Jean-Pierre Jolivet · 1 episode
Killing Cars
Kellermann
1985
The Children
Enrico
1982
That Night of Varennes
De Wendel
Guy de Maupassant
Gustave
1981
Season of Peace in Paris
Movie
Signé Furax
Broutechoux
52
1980
Tarendol
Bazalo · 4 episodes

1970s

1979
Arrête de ramer, t'attaques la falaise !
Don Gomez
1978
The Suspended Vocation
Malagrida
La Discorde
Bernard
1977
We Will All Meet in Paradise
Bastien, stage director
1976
La Jalousie
Albert Blondel
1975
Trop c'est trop
Flic
Dialogues of Exiles
Movie
1974
Ariane
The comedian
No Pockets in a Shroud
Laurence
1973
The Police Serve the Citizens?
Brera
Double Assassinat dans la rue Morgue
Dupin
1972
Far from Dallas
Jean
1971
Swedish Fly Girls
André
Murmur of the Heart
Charles Chevalier
79
Arsène Lupin
Daubrecq · 1 episode
76
1970
The Servant
Dr. Robert Marbois

1960s

1969
Destroy, She Said
Bernard Alione
Sadistic Hallucinations
Charles
Slogan
Evelyne's father
58
1968
The Most Beautiful Month
Le capitaine
The Truce
Arno
1967
Witness Out of Hell
Bora Petrović
1966
Black Sun
Guy Rodier
Is Paris Burning?
Yves Bayet
71
À belles dents
Bernard
Line of Demarcation
Doctor Jacques Lafaye
The Sultans
Léo
An Affair of States
Ballard
1965
The Sleeping Car Murders
Le vétérinaire titulaire, chargé de cours (uncredited)
Les Saintes Chéries
Pierre Lagarde · 39 episodes
Uncertain Verification
(archive footage)
The Hour of Truth
Davod
The Boy and the Ball and the Hole in the Wall
Gunther Smith
1964
Les murs
François Bonjean
How to Make a French Dish
Raymond
1963
Three Girls in Paris
Raymond
Portuguese Vacation
Daniel
Règlements de compte
Nicky
1962
Hitch-Hike
le comédien qui répète "Cyrano"
1961
Réveille-toi, chérie
Masure
In the Mouth of the Wolf
Un drogué
The Season for Love
Jacques Saint-Ford
Shadows of Adultery
Eric Kraemmer
1960
Three Etc.'s and the Colonel
Lieutenant Miguel Villard
Testament of Orpheus
L'interne (non crédité)
77
Carthage in Flames
Phegor