Italian postcard in the '100 Artisti del Cinema' series by Edizione ELAH 'La Casa delle caramelle', no. 34. Photo: Warner Bros.
Fernand Gravey in
The King and the Chorus Girl (Mervyn Le Roy, 1937).
Fernand Gravey (1905-1970) was an elegant Franco-Belgian stage, screen, and television actor, successfully working in Belgium, France, England, and Hollywood. He was also a war hero, who was active as a member of the French Intelligence and in particular for the Foreign Legion during the Second World War.
While Fernand Gravey’s mother, Fernande Depernay, had been Alfred Machin’s favorite actress in the films he directed at the Belge Cinéma Film, Gravey’s father Georges Mertens was not only an actor but also the director of the Théatre des Galeries in Brussels. Little Ferdinand Mertens, born 25 December 1905, started to act already at the age of five, under the direction of his father. In 1913-1914 he performed as child actor in five films by Machin: Saïda a enlevé Manneken-Pis, Un épisode de Waterloo, Monsieur Beulemeester, garde civique, Trente ans ou la vie d’un joueur (all 1913) and La Fille de Delft/A Tragedy in the Clouds (1914), which co-starred a very young Blanche Montel. During the First World War young Mertens stayed in Britain, where he started to get interested in the stage, became sportive and a passionate horse rider, and perfected his English; the latter would become an important asset in his international career and shaped his image as the gentleman of the screen. In the late 1920s, he went to Paris where he took the nom of Fernand Gravey and became known in vaudeville, alongside his female partners such as Arletty, Jane Renouardt (whom he married in 1928 according to Wikipedia; IMDb dates it 1936 though) and Cora Lynn (later known as Edwige Feuillère). Gravey’s debut in sound cinema came in 1930 with his role Armand Petitjean in L'amour chant (Robert Florey, 1930), one of several films at the Paris sound studio of Paramount. For years Gravey was the smiling, refined actor in boulevard comedies on the screen, often directed by René Guissart.
His success in the genre – which included the French version of Ludwig Berger’s Ich bei Tag und du bei Nacht (1932) - provided Fernand Gravey with the leading roles in two British comedies directed by Herbert Wilcox, Bitter Sweet (1933) and The Queen's Affair, both with Anna Neagle co-acting. The success of both films made Gravey a British star, while Hollywood got interested in his talents. Gravey first went back to France, continuing his career there in films such as the circus film Variétés (Nicholas Farkas), which co-starred Jean Gabin and Annabella. In 1936 Gravey was finally won over to leave for Hollywood but instead of a studio contract, he signed an exclusive contract with director Mervyn LeRoy. In Hollywood, he changed his name to Gravet instead of Gravey and debuted in a Warner musical comedy The King and the Chorus Girl (1937), based on a script by Groucho Marx and Norman Krasna, and starring Joan Blondell, Jane Wyman, and Edward Everett Horton. Shortly after Gravey acted in another Warner comedy directed by LeRoy, Fools for Scandal (1938), which starred Carole Lombard and Ralph Bellamy, and with music by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, but the film was less successful. In the same year, Gravey signed a contract with MGM and obtained the role of Johann Strauss in Julien Duvivier’s The Great Walzer (1938), an epic and romantic biopic of the Austrian composer and conductor. Gravey did a splendid performance as Strauss, with Luise Rainer as his sweet wife Poldi Vogelhuber and Miliza Korjus playing his mistress Carla Donner. The super-production was a big success and turned Gravey into one of the best-paid stars in Hollywood.
Despite his American success Fernand Gravey longed for France and went back in 1939, shortly before the German Occupation. Shortly after his return, he acted in the French film noir Le dernier tournant (Pierre Chenal, 1939), the first film adaptation of James M. Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice, which co-starred Corinne Luchaire as Cora and Michel Simon as Nick. In the following years Gravey appeared in melodramas such as Paradis perdu (1940) by Abel Gance and La Nuit fantastique (1941) by Marcel L'Herbier, and in historical adventure films such as Le Capitaine Fracasse (Abel Gance, 1943), but more important Gravey was involvement at the front of the Second World War, working for the French Intelligence and in particular for the Foreign Legion, under his original name of Fernand Mertens. With the Legion he participated in military campaigns in France and Germany, receiving honorary dismissal in 1945, with the grade of reserve lieutenant. He also became a French citizen and in 1952 Gravey was awarded the title of Première Classe d'Honneur of the Foreign Legion. After a gradual return to the screen, in 1950 Gravey had an excellent opportunity to excel as Charles Breitkpof, the frivolous and mature seducer who in his turn is cheated by his wife Emma (Danielle Darrieux) in the daring and sophisticated La Ronde (1950) by Max Ophüls, based on Arthur Schnitzler’s play Reigen. In the same year, Gravey returned to the stage for Harvey by Mary Chase and all during the 1950s he alternated the stage with the screen, often playing the elegant gentleman and reckless bon-vivant. In 1954 he also played Molière in Sacha Guitry’s historical super-production Si Versailles m’étais conté/Royal Affairs in Versailles (1954). While he continued his career on stage, his screen roles became rarer in the 1960s. Among his last English language performances were How to Steal a Million (William Wyler, 1966) starring Audrey Hepburn and shot in Europe, La Bataille de San Sebastian/Guns for San Sebastian (Henri Verneuil, 1968) and the Giraudoux adaptation La Folle de Chaillot/The Madwoman of Chaillot (Bryan Forbes, 1969), in which Gravey played the police inspector. His last screen performance Gravey did in the crime story L’Explosion (Marc Simenon, 1971), which was released after Gravey’s death. Fernand Gravey died in Paris on 2 November 1970, because of an infarct, and was buried in the cemetery of Saint-Cloud. His wife, former silent film actress Jane Renouardt (1890-1972), survived him only two years.
Sources: Wikipedia (French, Italian, and English), and IMDb.
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