Bernard Dhéran(1926-2013)
- Actor
- Additional Crew
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Anyone living in France has necessarily seen or heard Bernard Dhéran,
in a theater, in a movie house, on a DVD or on a TV screen. Didn't he
interpret dozens and dozens of plays - plays he sometimes directed
himself? Wasn't he in 112 films, TV movies or series? Didn't he dub
scores of famous actors such as David Niven, Sean Connery, Christopher
Plummer, Christopher Lee or IanMcKellen? And yet if you ask anyone in
France whether they know the name of Bernard Dhéran you are very likely
to get a negative answer. And yet his fine figure, his great presence,
his male assertive voice, his elegance (including when he plays the
villain of the piece) are unmistakable. Born Bernard Poulain in Dieppe
in 1926, he was raised in Rouen and was fourteen when the Nazis invaded
France. When time came for him to choose a career he did not know what
to do exactly but he took drama classes on a fancy. Little by little
passion was aroused and it would never relinquish its grip on Bernard,
now Dhéran - to his (and our) delight. He debuted in "Hamlet" in 1946
and was accepted at the Conservatoire de Paris the following year where
he won a second prize. First hired by the Renaud-Barrault company, he
belonged to the Comédie Française for nearly thirty years. He acted in
plays by Molière, Corneille, Mirbeau, Montherlant, Camus, Billetdoux,
Poiret, among many many others. He was acclaimed recently in Laurent
Baffie's hilarious play "Toc Toc". Solicited by the cinema industry,
Bernard Dhéran did not say no but it wasn't long before disappointment
set in. Three roles in movies by his master Sacha Guitry, Gina
Lollobrigida's fiancé (no less!) in René Clair's "Les Belles de Nuit"
(1952) and a good part in a good solidarity movie "Si tous les gars du
monde" (1955) by Christian-Jaque but most of the (numerous) films he
made during the 1950s were standard comedies or crime stories in which
he was invariably the elegant cynical gangster, crook or other type of
bad man. Sick and tired, Dhéran went on working for the theater and
favored TV where he got much more rewarding parts. He could indeed
switch from Buckingham to Richelieu to Beaumarchais, to Voltaire to
Talleyrand! Whereas only two or three films he made for the cinema
stand out: "La belle Américaine (1962), Le silencieux" (1972),
"Ridicule" (1995). It was a pleasure to find him back in 2007 in one of
Claude Berri's last films "Ensemble c'est tout", in which he was the
picturesque father of colorful Laurent Stocker. Be that as it may,
Bernard Dhéran is still active and passionate sixty-three years after
he first appeared on a stage. An everyday dedication to his art that
commands respect.