Although he is perhaps better regarded for his stage work, the actor Jean Desailly had an impressive film career.  Over five decades, he appeared in over fifty films, showing a remarkable versatility which earned him a reputation as one of France’s most gifted and sought-after character actors.  He was born on 24th August 1920 and made his screen debut in Louis Daquin’s 1943 film Le Voyageur de la Toussaint.  He subsequently worked with some of the best French filmmakers – Jean Delannoy in La Symphonie pastorale (1946), Claude Autant-Lara in Occupe-toi d’Amélie (1949), Jean-Pierre Melville in Le Doulos (1962) and François Truffaut in La Peau douce (1964), the latter showing arguably his best film performance.

Cinema may be what confers on Jean Desailly immortality after his death but his real passion in life was the stage.  After a period with the Comédie Française, he became the star performer with the theatre company run by Jean-Louis Barrault and Madeleine Renault.  He then founded his own theatre company with his wife, Simone Valère, and managed several Parisian theatres successfully in the 1970s and 1980s, including the Théâtre Hebertot and the Théâtre de la Madeleine.   For his tireless stage work, Jean Desailly was recognised with the prestigious Molière prize in 2002.  He died in hospital in Paris on 11th June 2008, aged 87.  His appearance in so many classic French films will ensure his name will live on, his work appreciated by many future generations.