"Debonair, the eternal boulevardier, with his cane and canotier: one of the great show-biz figures, even in his latter-day renaissance as a twinkle-eyed French uncle." That was the description of the great French entertainer/actor Maurice Chevalier (1888-1972) by film historian David Shipman.

Chevalier was a stage performer of enormous presence and charm and, after beginning his film career in France, had particular success in early American talkies, often playing dashing rakes under the canny direction of Ernst Lubitsch. Because of his association with communist causes, Chevalier was not welcome in the U.S. during the Joseph McCarthy period of the late 1940s and early '50s. Still, he returned in triumph with featured roles in such American films as Love in the Afternoon (1957) and Gigi (1958). In 1959, after the enormous success of Gigi, he was awarded an honorary Oscar® for his "contributions to the world of entertainment for more than half a century."

Chevalier was born in Paris, where he enjoyed early success as a singer, dancer and mimic. While still in his teens he became the professional and romantic partner of the biggest female star in France, Fréhel, and then filled the same roles for the 36-year-old Mistinguett, a star of the Folies Bergère. After service in World War I, during which he was wounded and spent time in a German prison camp, he resumed performing as a star attraction in both France and England. In 1922 he brought his stage success, the operetta Dédé, to Broadway, but waited until sound had arrived in films to sign with Paramount Pictures and make his first American movie, Innocents of Paris (1929). It was in that film that he introduced his signature song, "Louise."

In 1930 Chevalier was nominated for an Oscar® as Best Actor for Lubitsch's The Love Parade (1929), a lighthearted musical with Jeanette MacDonald; and The Big Pond (1930), a romantic romp with Claudette Colbert. The latter film provided Chevalier with his first hit songs in America -- "Livin' in the Sunlight" and "A New Kind of Love." He reteamed with Colbert in The Smiling Lieutenant (1931) and with MacDonald in Love Me Tonight (1932). The success of the Chevalier pictures, particularly Love Me Tonight with its delightful Rodgers and Hart score, was considered a key element in musicals again becoming a popular film form. Lubitsch's The Merry Widow (1934), costarring MacDonald and sumptuously filmed at MGM, was the first sound version of the Franz Lehar operetta and another huge hit for Chevalier.

Chevalier returned to France in 1935 and continued to enjoy success as a singer and star of stage and screen. After the Nazi occupation of World War II, controversy swirled about him as he was accused of having been a collaborator. He was vindicated, but still faced suspicion in the U.S. because of the rumors and his communist connections. He continued to make such French films as René Clair's Man About Town (1947, known in France as Le silence est d'or), a comedy-drama in which he plays a film producer who falls in love with a younger woman.

Finally Chevalier was cast by writer/director Billy Wilder as Audrey Hepburn's father in Love in the Afternoon (1957), and his spell over American audiences was re-cast. Next came Vincente Minnelli's exquisite production of Gigi with its numerous awards, big box office and Chevalier's definitive delivery of the songs "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" and "I Remember It Well." None of his subsequent films reached such heights, but Chevalier had prominent roles as a kindly judge in Can-Can (1960), Leslie Caron's dying husband in Fanny (1961), a wise old priest who befriends midwife Angie Dickinson in Jessica (1962) and an intrepid professor in Disney's In Search of the Castaways (1962).

Chevalier's last film appearance was a brief one in Disney's Monkeys, Go Home! (1967), although he sang the title song for a later Disney movie, The Aristocats (1970). He continued to tour the world as an entertainer through much of the late 1960s, announcing his farewell tour in 1968. Chevalier was married twice, to Yvonne Vallée (1927-1932) and Nita Ray (1937-1946). He is buried in a cemetery outside Paris.

by Roger Fristoe