Michel Simon

Michel Simon (9 April 1895 – 30 May 1975) was a Swiss actor. He appeared in the notable films La Chienne (1931), Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932), L'Atalante (1934), Port of Shadows (1938), The Head (1959), and The Train (1964). The actor François Simon is his son.

Early years
Simon used to say about himself that he was born in 1895 and, "as misfortune never comes singly, cinema was born the same year".

Son of a Catholic sausage maker and a Protestant housewife mother, Simon soon left his family and town to go to Paris, where he first lived at the Hotel Renaissance, Saint-Martin Street, then in Montmartre. He worked many different jobs to survive, such as giving boxing lessons or peddling smuggled lighters. He devoured every book he could find, with special preference for Georges Courteline's writings.

His artistic beginnings in 1912 were modest: magician, clown and acrobat stooge in a dancers' show called "Ribert's and Simon's", in the Montreuil-sous-Bois Casino.

Conscripted into the Swiss Army in 1914, he described himself as insubordinate, spending a lot of time in the stockade. He also contracted tuberculosis.

In 1915, while on leave, he saw Georges Pitoëff's early work in the French language, at the Theatre de la Comédie of Geneva, acting in Hedda Gabler.

He then decided to become an actor too, but had to wait until 1920 before making his first brief appearance on stage, with Pitoëff's company, speaking three lines for the registrar role in the Shakespeare's Measure for Measure. He also worked at this time as the company's photographer. He was spotted for the first time in a supporting role in George Bernard Shaw's Androcles and the Lion. In 1922, his company moved to Paris at the Comédie des Champs-Élysées.

He quit the following year to become a light comedy actor in plays by Tristan Bernard, Marcel Achard and Yves Mirande. Marcel Achard presented him to Charles Dullin, in whose company he acted in Je ne vous aime pas with Valentine Tessier.

Later years
Louis Jouvet, who had meanwhile replaced Pitoëff, hired him at the Comédie des Champs-Élysées. Simon then gave a successful performance in Jean de la Lune, a play by Marcel Achard. His inimitable talent transformed his Cloclo supporting role to the big attraction of the play.

His theatrical career then blossomed with a large repertoire: Shakespeare, Bernard Shaw, Pirandello, Oscar Wilde, Bourdet, Henri Bernstein, but it was film that brought him stardom. His first film appearance was Feu Mathias Pascal, adapted from Pirandello and directed by Marcel L'Herbier. Very soon after, he appeared in La vocation d'André Carel, directed by Jean Choux. The film used small-scale production methods, just as the Nouvelle Vague would do.

In silent movies, he brought his amazing appearance and his unusual face – a talent with an exceptional mobility, but without mannerism. He exploited his body, especially his ugliness, offering a very wide range of characterisations that brought audience sympathy, as in Boudu sauvé des eaux, or sometimes, In Quai des brumes for example, disdain.

His film career was boosted with the advent of talking pictures. People remarked that his elocution and gravelly voice were as original as his appearance and play. He then revealed his unclassifiable talent: action comedy, drama, tragedy, light comedy.

He appeared in 55 plays from 1920 to 1965, and 101 from 1965 to 1975.

Simon was a trusted friend of elite brothel-keeper Madame Claude, who referred to him as one of her “essayeurs”: he "tried out" her new girls for her. “I could judge their physical qualities,” Claude said. “I could judge if she was pretty, intelligent, and cultivated, but I didn’t know how she was in bed. So I had some boys, good friends, who told me exactly. I would ring them up and say, ‘There’s a new one.’ And afterwards they’d ring back and say, ‘Not bad,’ ‘Could be better,’ or ‘Nulle.’ Or, on the contrary, ‘She’s perfect.’”

He appeared in Dreyer's 1928 The Passion of Joan of Arc. He acted in films for Jean Renoir (La Chienne, Boudu Saved From Drowning), Jean Vigo (L'Atalante) and Marcel Carné (Port of the Shadows, Bizarre, Bizarre).

In the 1950s, he reined in his activities following an accident involving a makeup dye that left part of his face and body paralysed.

In 1967, he won the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 17th Berlin International Film Festival for his role in Le vieil homme et l'enfant (The Two of Us).

He died at 80 years of age from a pulmonary embolism and is buried in the Grand-Lancy Cemetery of Geneva, next to his parents, as per his testamentary wishes.

Eccentric
In the 1920s/1930s, Simon enjoyed associating with the Parisian lower classes.

Simon would say that he preferred "living with animals than humans". He lived for a long time in a kind of bohemian house in Noisy-le-Grand, near Paris. He built a series of exterior wire tunnels that linked the various floors and allowed his pet monkeys freedom to roam around. The house was surrounded by rank weeds, and filled with amazing bric-a-brac, including his large collection of erotica, including photographs and films. This collection was dispersed after his death.

Selected filmography



 * La galerie des monstres (1924)
 * The Vocation of André Carel (1925) .... Gaston Lebeau
 * Feu Mathias Pascal (1926, by Marcel L'Herbier) .... Jérôme Pomino
 * L'inconnue des six jours (1926) .... Le valet de chambre
 * The Loves of Casanova (1927) .... Sbire
 * The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928, by Carl Theodor Dreyer) .... Jean Lemaître
 * Tire au flanc (1928) .... Joseph Turlot
 * Pivoine (1929)
 * L'enfant de l'amour (1930) .... Lorédan
 * Jean de la Lune (1931) .... Clothaire dit Clo-Clo
 * On purge bébé (1931, by Jean Renoir) .... Chouilloux
 * La Chienne (1931, by Jean Renoir) .... Maurice Legrand
 * Baleydier (1932) .... Baleydier
 * Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932, by Jean Renoir) .... Priape Boudu
 * High and Low (1933, by G. W. Pabst) .... Maximilian Podeletz
 * Léopold le bien-aimé (1934) .... M. Ponce
 * Miquette (1934) .... Monchablon
 * Lake of Ladies (1934) .... Oscar Lyssenhop
 * L'Atalante (1934, by Jean Vigo) .... Old Jules
 * Le Bonheur (1934, by Marcel L'Herbier) .... Noël Malpiaz
 * Adémaï au moyen âge (1935) .... Lord Pickwickdam
 * Amants et voleurs (1935) .... Perrot-Joly
 * Under Western Eyes (1936) .... Lespara
 * Moutonnet (1936) .... Frècheville
 * The Brighton Twins (1936) .... Labrosse
 * Girls of Paris (1936) .... Baron de Beaupoil and his brother
 * Death on the Run (1936) .... Achille Baluchet
 * Let's Make a Dream (1936) .... Un invité (prologue)
 * Le choc en retour (1937) .... Laverdac
 * Boulot aviateur (1937) .... Baron Gobèche
 * The Silent Battle (1937) .... Sauvin
 * Bizarre, Bizarre (1937, by Marcel Carné) .... Irwin Molyneux
 * Naples au baiser de feu (1937) .... Michel
 * Mirages (1938) .... Michel
 * Boys' School (1938, ''AKA: "les disparus de saint agil" by Christian-Jaque) .... Lemel, the drawing teacher
 * Port of Shadows (1939, by Marcel Carné) .... Zabel
 * Les Nouveaux Riches (1938) .... Martinet
 * Beautiful Star (1938) .... Léon
 * Belle étoile (1938) .... Le comte Edouard de Bourgogne dit 'L'Escargot'
 * La chaleur du sein (1938) .... Michel Quercy
 * Le règne de l'esprit malin (1938) .... Luc
 * Noix de coco (1939) .... Josserand
 * Eusèbe député (1939) .... Eusèbe Bonbonneau
 * Behind the Facade (1939) .... Picking
 * The End of the Day (1939) .... Cabrisssade
 * Le Dernier tournant (1939) .... Nick Marino
 * Fric-Frac (1939, by Claude Autant-Lara & Maurice Lehmann) .... Jo
 * Circonstances atténuantes (1939) .... M. Gaetan Le Sentencier, 'La Sentence'
 * Love Cavalcade (1939) .... Diogène, Monseigneur de Beaupré & Lacouret
 * Musicians of the Sky (1940) .... Le capitaine Simon
 * Paris-New York (1940) .... L'inspecteur Boucheron
 * La Comédie du bonheur (1940, by Marcel L'Herbier) .... M. Jourdain
 * Ecco la felicità (1940) .... Giambattista Giordano
 * Tosca (1941, by Carl Koch) .... Il barone Scarpia
 * The King's Jester (1941) .... Rigoletto
 * Girl of the Golden West (1942) .... Butler / Carras
 * Shop Girls of Paris (1943) .... Baudu
 * Vautrin the Thief (1943) .... Jacques Collin dit Vautrin
 * A Friend Will Come Tonight (1946) .... Michel Lemaret
 * Panic (1946, by Julien Duvivier) .... Monsieur Hire
 * La taverne du poisson couronné (1947) .... Capitaine Palmer
 * Not Guilty (1947) .... Le docteur Michel Ancelin
 * Les Amants du pont Saint-Jean (1947) .... Alcide Garonne
 * La carcasse et le tord-cou (1948) .... Joseph Ferdinand Anselme Midot, dit 'Le tord-cou'
 * Fabiola (1949) .... Senator Fabius Severus
 * Beauty and the Devil (1950, by René Clair) .... Mephistopheles / Old Professor Henri Faust
 * Poison (1951, by Sacha Guitry) .... Paul-Louis Victor Braconnier
 * Monsieur Taxi (1952) .... Pierre Verger (Monsieur Taxi)
 * Brelan d'as (1952) .... Le commissaire Jules Maigret (segment (segment "Le témoignage d'un enfant de choeur")
 * Das Geheimnis vom Bergsee (1952) .... Bürgermeister (french version)
 * The Girl with the Whip (1952) .... Le tuteur d'Angelina
 * The Temptress (1952) .... Cidoni
 * Crimson Curtain (1952) .... Bertal / Banquo
 * Le chemin de Damas (1952) .... Caïphe
 * The Merchant of Venice (1953) .... Shylock
 * La Vie d'un honnête homme (1953) .... Albert Ménard-Lacoste / Alain Ménard-Lacoste
 * Women of Paris (1953) .... Professeur Charles Buisson
 * Saadia (1953) .... Bou Rezza
 * L'Étrange Désir de monsieur Bard (1954) .... Auguste Bard
 * A Slice of Life (1954) .... Padre Silvio (segment "Casa d'altri")
 * Hungarian Rhapsody (1954) .... General von Sayn-Wittgenstein
 * Par ordre du tsar (1954) .... Prince de Sayn-Wittgenstein
 * The Impossible Mr. Pipelet (1955, by André Hunebelle) .... Maurice Martin
 * Mémoires d'un flic (1956) .... Le commissaire principal Henri Dominique
 * La joyeuse prison (1956) .... Benoit - le surveillant-chef
 * Les 3 font la paire (1957) .... Commissaire Bernard
 * Un certain Monsieur Jo (1958) .... Joseph 'Jo' Guardini
 * It Happened in Broad Daylight (1959, by Ladislao Vajda) .... Jacquier
 * The Head (1959, by Victor Trivas) .... Professor Abel
 * Austerlitz (1960) .... Alboise
 *  (1960, by François Villiers) .... Pierrot
 * Candide ou l'optimisme au XXe siècle (1960) .... Colonel Nanar, du cadre de réserve
 *  (1961) by Denys de la Patelliére) .... Charles-Edmond Larmentiel
 * Le Diable et les Dix Commandements (1962, by Julien Duvivier) .... Jérôme Chambard (segments "Dieu en vain ne jureras" / "Les Dimanches tu garderas")
 * Marco Polo (1962)
 * The Train (1964, by John Frankenheimer) .... Papa Boule
 * Cyrano and d'Artagnan (1964) .... Duc de Mauvières
 * Deux heures à tuer (1966) .... L'employé de la consigne
 * The Two of Us (1967, by Claude Berri) .... Pépé Dupont
 * The Marriage Came Tumbling Down (1968) .... Le vieux Jéricho
 * Contestazione generale (1970) .... Cavazza
 * La maison (1970) .... Louis Compiegne
 * Blanche (1971, by Walerian Borowczyk) .... Le châtelain
 * The Most Wonderful Evening of My Life (1972, by Ettore Scola) .... Attorney Zorn
 * Le boucher, la star et l'orpheline (1975) .... L'érotologue
 *  (1975, by Jean-Pierre Mocky) (with Michel Serrault and Michel Galabru) ... Zizi