Gabin was bornJean-Alexis Moncorgé in Paris, the son of Madeleine Petit and Ferdinand Moncorgé, a cafe owner andcabaret entertainer whose stage name was Gabin,[1][2] which is a first name in French. He grew up in the village ofMériel in theSeine-et-Oise (nowVal-d'Oise) département, about 22 mi (35 km) north of Paris. He attended theLycée Janson de Sailly. Gabin left school early, and worked as a laborer until the age of 19 when he entered show business with a bit part in aFolies Bergère production. He continued performing in a variety of minor roles before going into the military.
After completing his military service in theFusiliers marins, he returned to the entertainment business, working under thestage name of Jean Gabin at whatever was offered in the Parisianmusic halls andoperettas, imitating the singing style ofMaurice Chevalier, which was the rage at the time. He was part of a troupe that toured South America, and upon returning to France found work at theMoulin Rouge. His performances started getting noticed, and better stage roles came along that led to parts in twosilent films in 1928.
Two years later Gabin made the transition to sound films in a 1930Pathé Frères production,Chacun sa chance. Playing secondary roles, he made more than a dozen films over the next four years, including films directed byMaurice andJacques Tourneur. But he only gained real recognition for his performance inMaria Chapdelaine, a 1934 production directed byJulien Duvivier. He was then cast as a romantic hero in the 1936 war dramaLa Bandera; this second Duvivier-directed film established him as a major star. The next year he teamed up with Duvivier again in the highly successfulPépé le Moko. Its popularity brought Gabin international recognition. That same year he starred inJean Renoir'sLa Grande Illusion, an antiwar film that ran at a New York City theatre for an unprecedented six months. This was followed by another of Renoir's major works,La Bête Humaine (The Human Beast), afilm noir tragedy based on the novel byÉmile Zola and starring Gabin andSimone Simon, as well asLe Quai Des Brumes (Port of Shadows), one of directorMarcel Carné's classics ofpoetic realism. His rugged charisma could be compared with Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney.[3]
In the late 1930s Gabin was flooded with offers from Hollywood, but turned them all down until the outbreak of World War II. After theGerman occupation of France in 1940, he joined Renoir and Duvivier in the United States. During his time in Hollywood, Gabin began a romance with actressMarlene Dietrich that lasted until 1948.[4]His films in America—Moontide (1942) andThe Impostor (1944), the latter with Duvivier—were not successful.
In 1945 Carné chose Gabin to star in the filmGates of the Night with Dietrich as his co-star. She disliked the screenplay and feared her German accent would not go over well with postwar French audiences. When she withdrew from the project, Gabin followed suit, leading to a falling out with Carné. He found a French producer and director willing to cast him and Dietrich together, but the film,Martin Roumagnac, was not a success and their personal relationship soon ended. In 1948 Gabin starred in René Clément's poetic realist filmThe Walls of Malapaga (Au-delà des grilles), which won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Picture but garnered little recognition for Gabin. In 1949 he starred in his only role in legitimate theatre inHenri Bernstein'sLa Soif. It ran in Paris for six months, with Gabin critically praised as "a first-rate stage actor." Despite this recognition, his subsequent films did not do well at the French box office, and the next five years brought repeated failures.
Gabin died ofleukemia at theAmerican Hospital of Paris, in the Parisian suburb ofNeuilly-sur-Seine. His body was cremated, and—with full military honours—his ashes were scattered at sea from a military ship.
In 1981, French actorLouis de Funès initiated thePrix Jean Gabin, an accolade presented to upcoming actors in the French film industry. It was awarded annually from 1981 to 2006.
The Musée Jean Gabin—in the commune of Mériel, where he grew up—narrates his story and features his film memorabilia.
The Place Jean Gabin was inaugurated on 16 May 2008 byDaniel Vaillant, the then mayor of the18th arrondissement of Paris, and Gabin's children. It is on the corner of rue Custine and rue Lambert, at the foot ofMontmartre.
The Cinema Jean Gabin inMontgenèvre was named for him. Montgenèvre describes itself as France's oldest ski resort, and was a popular holiday destination for Gabin and other French artists and intellectuals, includingJean-Paul Sartre.
Gabin bought land inOrne, most notablyBonnefoi andMoulins-la-Marche, where a street is named in his honour and the race track he created, Hippodrome Jean Gabin still bears his name.[6][7]
Joseph Harriss: "Jean Gabin: The Actor Who Was France." McFarland, Jefferson, NC 2018ISBN978-1-4766-7627-2
Jean-Marc Loubier:Jean Gabin, Marlène Dietrich: un rêve brisê, Acropole, Paris 2002,ISBN2-7357-0216-2.
Eine unvollendete Liebe. Marlene Dietrich und Jean Gabin. Documentary, Germany, 2012, 52:30 Min., Book and directed by Daniel Guthmann, Christian Buckhard, Production: DG Filmproduktion,WDR,arte, first shown: 9 February 2013, arte. contains interviews with Louis Bozon and Jean-Jacques Debout, and Gabin's children Florence and Mathias.
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