Gérard Oury

Biography

Gérard Oury (born Max-Gérard Houry Tannenbaum; 29 April 1919 – 20 July 2006) was a French film director, actor and writer. He is best known for a number of comedies he directed and co-wrote between the 1960s and 1980s, most notably The Sucker (1965), Don't Look Now... We're Being Shot At! (1966), The Brain (1969), The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob (1973), and Ace of Aces (1982). Max-Gérard Houry-Tannenbaum was the only son of Serge Tannenbaum, a violinist of Russian-Jewish origin, and French Jewish Marcelle Houry, a journalist and art critic. Tannenbaum was absent from the life of Oury and he was raised in an unobservant house of his mother and maternal grandmother Berthe Goldner. Oury studied at the Lycée Janson de Sailly and then at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art. He became a member of the Comédie-Française before World War II, but fled with all his family (mother, grandmother and unofficial wife, actress Jacqueline Roman) to Switzerland to escape the anti-Jewish persecutions by the Vichy government. When in 1942 his daughter Danièle Thompson was born, his fatherhood was concealed, to avoid her classification as a Jew. After 1945 he returned to the liberated Paris an…

Directed

1. Don't Look Now... We're Being Shot At! (1966) — Director
2. The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob (1973) — Director
3. Delusions of Grandeur (1971) — Director
4. The Sucker (1965) — Director
5. Ace of Aces (1982) — Director
6. The Brain (1969) — Director
7. Umbrella Coup (1980) — Director
8. The Thirst for Gold (1993) — Director
9. Out of It (1978) — Director
10. The Vengeance of the Winged Serpent (1984) — Director
11. Ghost with Driver (1996) — Director
12. Vanille fraise (1989) — Director
13. Levy & Goliath (1987) — Director
14. Crime Does Not Pay (1962) — Director
15. The Menace (1961) — Director
16. Le Schpountz (1999) — Director
17. The Itchy Palm (1960) — Director
18. New Reports from France (1964) — Director

Also appeared in

1. The Prize (1963) — Claude Marceau
2. Mr. Peek-a-Boo (1951) — Maurice
3. Antoine & Antoinette (1947) — Le client galant
4. A Man and a Woman: 20 Years Later (1986) — Un spectateur de '40 ans déjà'
5. Sea Devils (1953) — Napoleon
6. Father Brown (1954) — Inspector Dubois
7. Back to the Wall (1958) — Jacques Decrey
8. The Journey (1959) — Teklel Hafouli
9. The Mirror Has Two Faces (1958) — docteur Bosc
10. They Who Dare (1954) — Captain George Two
11. The Sword and the Rose (1953) — Dauphin of France
12. Without Leaving an Address (1951) — Un journaliste
13. The Night Is My Kingdom (1951) — Lionel Moreau
14. Seventh Heaven (1958) — Maurice Portal
15. The Heart of the Matter (1953) — Yusef
16. Woman of the River (1954) — Enzo Cinti
17. Young Girls Beware (1957) — Marcel Palmer
18. Du Guesclin (1949) — Le Dauphin
19. The Marines (1957) — Récitant (voice)
20. The Menace (1961) — The Doctor
21. House of Secrets (1956) — Julius Pindar
22. Nulle part ailleurs (1987) — Self
23. Champs-Elysées (1982) — Self
24. Vivement dimanche (1998) — Self
25. The Best Part (1955) — Gérard Bailly
26. Heroes and Sinners (1955) — Villeterre
27. Belmondo: The Incorrigible (2022)
28. Sacrée soirée (1987) — Self
29. The Secret of Mayerling (1949) — (uncredited)
30. Apostrophes (1975) — Self
31. Les Rois de la comédie (2023) — Self (archive footage)
32. Little Nothings (1941) — Philinte
33. Le Costaud des Batignolles (1952) — Narrator (voice)
34. Le Grand Échiquier (1972) — Self
35. Cinépanorama (1956) — Self
36. The Itchy Palm (1960) — Cameo Appearance (uncredited)
37. The Four of Moana (1959) — Self - Narrator (voice)
38. Spécial cinéma (1974) — Self
39. Here Is the Beauty (1950) — Bruno
40. Sorceror (1950) — (uncredited)