French postcard by Edit. Chantal, Rueil, no. 82. Photo: Sirius.
French stage and film actress
Jacqueline Gauthier (1921-1982) made her name in comedies alongside fashionable singers such as Charles Trenet, Tino Rossi and Georges Guétary and often worked with director Jean Boyer. She began her film career as a young stage actress in the late 1930s and appeared in 30 films without making a lasting impression.
Jacqueline Jeanne Louise Gauthier (sometimes written as Gautier) was born in Paris in the 10th arrondissement in 1921 (IMDb writes 1918). Initially, she decided to become a dancer. However, her mother's opinion was not on her side, and she preferred to introduce her to her idol Louis Jouvet when Jacqueline was 14. But it was Alice Cocéa who gave her in 1938 her first role in 'Le coup de Trafalgar' (The Trafalgar Coup) by Roger Vitrac, at the Théâtre des Ambassadeurs. That same year, she made her film debut in the comedy Vacances payées / Paid Holidays (Maurice Cammage, 1938) with Frédéric Duvallès and Andrex. The following year, she played a supporting part in the musical Louise (Abel Gance, 1939) starring Grace Moore and based on the opera of the same name by Gustave Charpentier. Over the next decade, she appeared regularly in French films. In 1942 she appeared in 5 films. She played small parts in the dramas La femme que j'ai le plus aimée / The Woman I Loved Most (Robert Vernay, 1942) starring Arletty and Mireille Balin, and Le journal tombe à cinq heures / The Newspaper Falls at Five O'Clock (Georges Lacombe, 1942) starring Pierre Fresnay. Then followed co-starring roles opposite Jean Tissier and Suzanne Dehelly in the comedy À vos ordres, Madame / At Your Command, Madame (Jean Boyer, 1942) and René Dary in the mystery Huit hommes dans un château / Eight Men in a Castle (Richard Pottier, 1942), and Charles Trenet and Elvire Popesco in the comedy Frédérica / Frederica (Jean Boyer, 1942). She had a supporting part in the historical drama Au Bonheur des Dames / Shop Girls of Paris (André Cayatte, 1943) starring Michel Simon, an adaptation of a novel by Émile Zola. During the occupation of France, she also co-starred in the crime film Le mort ne reçoit plus / Death No Longer Awaits (Jean Tarride, 1944) starring Jules Berry.
After the liberation, Jacqueline Gauthier easily continued her film career. She starred in the comedy Tombé du ciel / Dropped from Heaven (Emil E. Reinert, 1946). She played a singer who jokingly tells one of her bandmates (Claude Dauphin) that he is the father of her child. The girl is not her daughter at all but belongs to a friend. Then she co-starred with Tino Rossi in Sérénade aux nuages / Song of the Clouds (André Cayatte, 1946). The comedy was one of the most popular films of the year in France with more than 3 million visitors. She co-starred with Albert Prejean and Jules Berry in the crime film L'assassin n'est pas coupable / The Murderer is Not Guilty (René Delacroix, 1946) about murders on film actors. She starred in the comedies Les maris de Léontine / The Husbands of Leontine (René Le Hénaff, 1947) with Pierre Jourdan, and Une nuit à Tabarin / One Night at the Tabarin (Karel Lamac, 1947) with Robert Dhéry. Gautier had a supporting part in the historical adventure Les aventures de Casanova / The Adventures of Casanova (Jean Boyer, 1947) starring Georges Guétary as Giacomo Casanova. In the 1950s Jacqueline Gauthier became a rarity on the silver screen. Her films included the comedies Ils ont vingt ans / They Are Twenty (René Delacroix, 1950) with Philippe Lemaire, Le clochard milliardaire / The Billionaire Tramp (Léopold Gomez, Hervé Bromberger, 1951) and La plus belle fille du monde / The Most Beautiful Girl in the World (Christian Stengel, 1951) with Françoise Arnoul in her first starring role. Disappointed by the roles she had been given in films, she turned to the small screen in 1956, a choice that proved fatal. She was never seen again in the cinema. Gautier's final film was the comedy Terreur des dames / The Terror with Women (Jean Boyer, 1956) with Noël-Noël and Fernandel. In the next decades, she became a familiar face to television audiences, appearing frequently in the programme Au théâtre ce soir between 1968 and 1980. She was on stage until the very end. Depressed, the beautiful Jacqueline Gauthier took her own life on 18 September 1982. She was 60. Gauthier is buried in the Batignolles cemetery in Paris. At IMDb, Guy Bellinger writes: "Jacqueline Gauthier had never agreed to be only a comedian, however good she was at it. Showing her true colors on the silver screen was the dream she long cherished but that she could never achieve, a few 'serious' projects (notably one with René Clair) ending up not coming to fruition. This is the reason why Jacqueline Gauthier stopped making movies in favor of the theater and television where besides her comic qualities she was given the opportunity to display her real talents in drama (for example Jacques Audiberti's 'La logeuse' on stage or La fortune des Rougon (1980) (TV Mini-Series), an adaptation of Émile Zola novel on TV ). It is more likely than not that the seventh art has missed out on a true talent."
Sources: Guy Bellinger (IMDb), Alexandre Carle (Les gens du Cinema - French), Wikipedia (English and French) and IMDb.
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