Cast & creator
Gérard Oury
Best known for Sacrée soirée, Vivement dimanche, Champs-Elysées
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 and restarted his career as an actor, performing in the theatre and in supporting roles in the cinema. Oury became a movie director in 1959 (The Itchy Palm) and gained his first success in 1961 with Crime Does Not Pay (Le crime ne paie pas). Pairing André Bourvil and Louis de Funès as a comic duo, he burst into commercial filmmaking with 1965's The Sucker (Le corniaud). The film was entered into the 4th Moscow International Film Festival. The following year, Don't Look Now... We're Being Shot At! (La Grande Vadrouille) was even more successful, attracting the largest audiences ever in France (17.27 million admissions). This box-office record stood for decades, only surpassed in 1997 by Titanic from James Cameron. Oury shot the 1969 comedy Le Cerveau (The Brain) in English, starring David Niven in the lead role as a criminal mastermind. With actress Jacqueline Roman, he was the father of French writer Danièle Thompson and grandfather of actor/writer Christopher Thompson. He lived together with the French actress Michèle Morgan for the second half of his life. He died aged 87 in Saint-Tropez on 20 July 2006. Source: Article "Gérard Oury" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.
Also known as: Max-Gérard Houry Tannenbaum, Gerard Oury, Жерар Ури, Max-Gérard Houry Tenenbaum
78
film credits
16
television credits
56
1941–2023 · acting roles
6.6
average across scored titles
Signature credits
Known for
Across film & television
Filmography (94)
Showing 94 of 94 credits
Sacrée soirée
Self
1987
Vivement dimanche
Self
1998
Champs-Elysées
Self
1982
Apostrophes
Self
1975
Les Rendez-vous du dimanche
Self
1975
Spécial cinéma
Self
1974
Le Grand Échiquier
Self
1972Le Grand Échiquier
Self - Main Guest
1972Samedi soir
Self
1971
Nulle part ailleurs
Self
1987
Cinépanorama
Self
1956
Ciné regards
Self
1978Système 2
Self
1975
À bout portant
Self
1968
Matin Bonheur
Self
1987
Don't Look Now... We're Being Shot At!
Director
1966Don't Look Now... We're Being Shot At!
Screenplay
1966
The Mirror Has Two Faces
Original Story
1996
The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob
Screenplay
1973The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob
Director
1973
Delusions of Grandeur
Director
1971Delusions of Grandeur
Writer
1971
The Sucker
Director
1965The Sucker
Screenplay
1965
Ace of Aces
Director
1982Ace of Aces
Writer
1982
The Journey
Teklel Hafouli
1959
The Brain
Director
1969The Brain
Writer
1969
Woman of the River
Enzo Cinti
1954
The Prize
Claude Marceau
1963
A Man and a Woman: 20 Years Later
Un spectateur de '40 ans déjà'
1986
Umbrella Coup
Director
1980Umbrella Coup
Writer
1980
Loves of Three Queens
Napoleon Bonaparte (segment: Napoleon and Josephine)
1954
The Vengeance of the Winged Serpent
Director
1984The Vengeance of the Winged Serpent
Writer
1984
The Sword and the Rose
Dauphin of France
1953
Belmondo: The Incorrigible
2022
Come Dance with Me!
Writer
1959
Seventh Heaven
Maurice Portal
1958
Back to the Wall
Jacques Decrey
1958
Sea Devils
Napoleon
1953
The Mirror Has Two Faces
docteur Bosc
1958The Mirror Has Two Faces
Writer
1958
House of Secrets
Julius Pindar
1956
Sur la route de la grande vadrouille
Self (archive footage)
2016
Without Leaving an Address
Un journaliste
1951
Witness in the City
Screenplay
1959
Crime Does Not Pay
Scenario Writer
1962Crime Does Not Pay
Director
1962
Heroes and Sinners
Villeterre
1955
They Who Dare
Captain George Two
1954
The Night Is My Kingdom
Lionel Moreau
1951
Out of It
Director
1978Out of It
Writer
1978
The Thirst for Gold
Director
1993The Thirst for Gold
Writer
1993
Here Is the Beauty
Bruno
1950
Les Rois de la comédie
Self (archive footage)
2023
The Heart of the Matter
Yusef
1953
La Folle Heure des grandis
Self
2002
Mr. Peek-a-Boo
Maurice
1951
Le Costaud des Batignolles
Narrator (voice)
1952
À la recherche de... Pierre Richard
Self - Actor, director, producer (archive footage)
2017
Vanille fraise
Director
1989Vanille fraise
Writer
1989
The Fate of Two Queens
Napoleon Bonaparte
1954New Reports from France
Director
1964
Antoine & Antoinette
Le client galant
1947
Louis de Funès, l'homme qui a passé le mur du son
Self (archive footage)
2013
Et vive la liberté !
Idea
1978
Father Brown
Inspector Dubois
1954
Levy & Goliath
Screenplay
1987Levy & Goliath
Director
1987
The Four of Moana
Self - Narrator (voice)
1959Endless Horizons
(voice)
1953
The Marines
Récitant (voice)
1957
The Secret of Mayerling
(uncredited)
1949
Jo la Romance
Roland Grenier
1949
The Menace
The Doctor
1961The Menace
Director
1961The Menace
Screenplay
1961
The Itchy Palm
Cameo Appearance (uncredited)
1960The Itchy Palm
Screenplay
1960The Itchy Palm
Director
1960
Young Girls Beware
Marcel Palmer
1957
L'homme au parapluie
Grégory Black
1956
Du Guesclin
Le Dauphin
1949
Ghost with Driver
Director
1996
Le Schpountz
Director
1999
The Best Part
Gérard Bailly
1955
Little Nothings
Philinte
1941
Sorceror
(uncredited)
1950