Dauphin, Claude

(1903-1978)

   Actor. Born Claude Legrand, Claude Dauphin wanted, from a very early age, to become an actor. Discouraged by his father, the poet Franc-Nohain, he was instead trained as a set decorator, and entered the world of theater by the back door, as it were. His brother, Jean Nohain, would also become an actor. After ten years, Dauphin sought out the stage, and ultimately, in the 1930s, he appeared onscreen. He would go on to make some eighty films in France and in Hollywood during a career that spanned fifty years.

   Dauphin made his screen debut in Solange Bussi's adaptation of Colette's La Vagabonde (1930). This was quickly followed by roles in Henri Diamant-Berger's Tout s'arrange (1931) and Clair de Lune (1932) and Jean Hémard's La Fortune (1931), Paris-Soleil (1932), and Aux urnes, citoyens! (1932), among other films. As the decade considered the golden age of French cinema unfolded, Dauphin would be right in its midst, appearing in films such as Jean de Limur's Le Voyage imprévu (1934), Georges Lacombe's La Route heureuse (1935), and Henri Decoin's Battement de coeur (1940).

   Dauphin also worked often with directors associated with Le Réalisme poétique or poetic realism, most notably Marc Allégret. He appeared in Allégret's Entrée des artistes (1938), La Belle aventure (1942), Les Deux timides (1943), and Félicie Nanteuil (1943). He also worked with Jacques Feyder in Une Femme disparaît (1944).

   During the occupation, Dauphin fled France for Great Britain, where he joined the Free French Forces under the command of Charles de Gaulle. While in Britain, he worked with Jean Renoir on the film Salute to France (1946). Dauphin returned to France after Liberation and resumed his film career, appearing in such films as Pierre Montazel's Croisière pour l'inconnu (1947), Marcel Achard's Jean de la lune (1948), Max Ophuls's Le Plaisir (1952), and Jacques Becker's Casque d'or (1952). He also spent time in Hollywood, appearing in such films as April in Paris (1952), Little Boy Lost (1953), Phantom of the Rue Morgue (1954), and The Quiet American (1958).

   The 1960s brought different types of roles to Dauphin, who went from playing suave, seductive young men in his early career to play older, sometimes hard-boiled men in his later career. He appeared in such films as Jacques Deray's Symphonie pour une massacre (1963), Roger Vadim's Barbarella (1968), Ettore Scola's La Plus belle soirée de ma vie (1972), and Otto Preminger's Rosebud (1975).