Charles Vanel

Charles-Marie Vanel (21 August 1892 – 15 April 1989) was a French actor and director. During his 76-year film career, which began in 1912, he appeared in more than 200 films and worked with many prominent directors, including Alfred Hitchcock, Luis Buñuel, Jacques Feyder, and Henri-Georges Clouzot. He is perhaps best remembered for his role as a desperate truck driver in Clouzot's The Wages of Fear for which he received a Special Mention at the Cannes Film Festival in 1953. Biography Early life Charles-Marie Vanel was born in Rennes in Brittany. He came from a seafaring family and his parents were traders who moved to Paris when he was twelve years old. He was expelled from all the schools he attended. He tried to enlist in the navy, but was rejected due to his poor eyesight. In 1908, he began to perform in the theater, appearing in Hamlet. His first film was the 1912 Jim Crow directed by Robert Péguy. He was mobilized for the First World War in July 1915, but was diagnosed in September with “mental disorders” and sent home. During the war, he took numerous theatrical tours, notably a tour to the US under the direction of Lucien Guitry. He became a member of the Firmin Gémier theatre company at the Théâtre Antoine, before devoting himself exclusively to cinema. His first major contract was with Russian producers Joseph Ermolieff and Alexandre Kamenka, who taught him using Stanislavski's system.