Jacques Dumesnil

Biography

Jacques Dumesnil (born Marie Émile Eugène André Joly ; 9 November 1903 – 8 May 1998) was a French film and television actor. Jacques Dumesnil was born as Marie Émile Eugène André Joly on November 9, 1903, in Paris, France. Before becoming an actor, he received training as a mechanical engineer. After starting as a secretary at the aviation school, he became an industrial designer, a profession he left to devote himself to the theater. He adopted the pseudonym Dumesnil because of the admiration he had to French actor Camille Dumény. He started out as a fanciful singer in a café located in Paris Place de l'Hôtel de Ville , he was paid in sandwiches and glasses of beer. Dumesnil started on stage in 1927 and divided his career between theater and cinema. Having spent two years at the Comédie-Française , he played among other things in Les Tontons flingueurs and provided the French voice of Charlie Chaplin in Monsieur Verdoux (1947) and A King in New York (1957). His role as Duke of Plessis-Vaudreuil in the television series Au Plaisir de Dieu , earned him a resurgence of popularity and the 7 d'Or for best actor. Jacques Dumesnil had a son, Pierre Joly dit Dumesnil , who was a French swimming champion and participated in the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki , Finland.

Known For

Crooks in Clover

as Louis « le Mexicain »

Ulysses

as Alicinous

All the World's Memory

as Self / Narrator (voice)

Anna

as Professor Ferri

Napoleon

as Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte

Life Together

as Le docteur Henri Girane

If Paris Were Told to Us

as Richelieu

Plucking the Daisy

as General Dumont

The Marriage of Chiffon

as Max de Bray

56, rue Pigalle

as Jean Vigneron