Jean Gabin

Partial filmography:. Billy Halop Online (http://home.comcast.net/~shelga/index.html). The Musée Jean Gabin in his native town of Mériel contains his story and his war and film memorabilia. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide. Considered one of the great stars of French cinema, he was made a member of the Legion of Honor. For the rest of his life, Billy Halop supplemented his nursing income with small TV and movie roles, gaining a measure of latter-day prominence as Archie Bunker's cab-driving pal Bert Munson on the '70s TV series All in the Family. His body was cremated and with full military honors, his ashes were disbursed into the sea from a military ship. John's Hospital in Malibu.

Gabin died of a heart attack in the Parisian suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine. In 1960, he married a multiple sclerosis victim, and the nursing skills he learned while taking care of his wife led him to steady work as a registered nurse at St. Over the next twenty years, Gabin made close to fifty more films, including many for Gafer Films, his production partnership with fellow actor Fernandel. Diminishing film work, marital difficulties and a drinking problem eventually ate away at Halop's show business career. Directed by Jacques Becker, his performance earned him critical acclaim and the film was a very profitable international success. A long-standing rivalry between Halop and fellow Dead-Ender Leo Gorcey (both actors wanted to be the leader of the gang) led to Billy's breakaway from the Dead End Kids and its offspring groups, the East Side Kids and the Bowery Boys, though Halop briefly starred in Universal's "Little Tough Guys" films. After serving in World War II, Halop found that he'd grown too old to be effective in the roles that had brought him fame; at one point he was reduced to starring in a cheap "East Side Kids" imitation at PRC studios, Gas House Kids (1946). However, he made a comeback in the 1954 film, Touchez pas au grisbi. After several years as a well-paid radio juvenile, Billy was cast as Tommy Gordon in the Broadway production of Sidney Kingsley's Dead End (1935), where thanks to his previous credentials he was accorded star status. Traveling to Hollywood with the rest of the Dead End Kids when Samuel Goldwyn produced a film version of the play in 1937, Billy had no trouble lining up important roles, specializing in tough kids, bullies and reform school inmates in such major pictures as Dust be My Destiny (1939) and Tom Brown's School Days (1940).

Despite this recognition, the film did not do well at the French box office and the next five years brought little more than repeated box office failures and Gabin's career seemed headed for oblivion. The original leader of the original "Dead End Kids," American actor Billy Halop came from a theatrical family; his mother was a dancer and his sister Florence Halop was a busy radio actress. Nevertheless, he was cast in the lead role of the 1949 René Clément film Au-Dela Des Grilles that won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. February 11, 1920 - November 9, 1976. Following another box office failure in 1947, Gabin returned to the stage but there too, the production was another financial disaster. He then found a French producer and director willing to cast him and Marlene Dietrich together, but their film Martin Roumagnac was not a success and their personal relationship soon ended.

In 1946, Gabin was hired by Marcel Carné to star in his film, Les Portes de la Nuit but his egotistical conduct got him fired again. Captured on film by the media is a scene where an anxious Marlene Dietrich is waiting in the crowd when she spots Gabin on board a battle tank and rushes to him. Following D-Day, Gabin was part of the military contingent that entered a liberated Paris. Undaunted, Jean Gabin joined General de Gaulle's Free French Forces where he earned the Médaille Militaire and a Croix de Guerre for his wartime valor fighting with the Allies in North Africa.

The studio refused and after Gabin remained steadfast in his demand, he was fired and the film project was shelved. Scheduled to star in an RKO film, at the last minute he demanded Dietrich be given the co-starring role. However, his films in America proved less than successful and, a difficult personality with a very large ego, he did serious damage to his Hollywood career while working for RKO Pictures. Divorced from his second wife in 1939, during his time in Hollywood, Gabin began a torrid romance with actress Marlene Dietrich.

Following the German occupation of France, he joined Jean Renoir and Julien Duvivier in the United States. Flooded with offers from Hollywood, for a time Gabin turned them all down until the outbreak of World war II. That same year he starred in the Jean Renoir masterpiece La Grande Illusion, an anti-war film that was a huge box office success and given universal critical acclaim, even running at a New York City theater for an unprecedented six months. The following year, he teamed up with Duvivier again, this time in the highly successful Pepe Le Moko that became one of the top Grossing Films of 1937 worldwide which brought Gabin international recognition.

Cast as a romantic hero in a 1936 war drama titled La Bandera, this second Duvivier directed film established Gabin as a major star. However, he only gained real recognition for his performance in Maria Chapdelaine, a 1934 production directed by Julien Duvivier. Playing secondary roles, Gabin made more than a dozen films over the next four years, including films directed by Maurice and Jacques Tourneur. His performances started getting noticed and better stage roles came along that led to parts in two silent films in 1928. Two years later, he easily made the transition to talkies in a 1930 Pathé Frères production titled Chacun sa Chance.

He was part of a troupe that toured South America and upon returning to France found work at the Moulin Rouge. After completing his military service, Gabin returned to the entertainment business, working under the stage name of Jean Gabin at whatever was offered in the Parisian music halls and operettas. He continued performing in a variety of minor roles before going into he military. The son of cabaret entertainers, he worked as a laborer but at age 19 entered show business with a bit part in a Folies Bergères production.

Born Jean-Alexis Moncorgé in a hospital in Paris, France, he grew up in the family home in the village of Mériel in the Val-d'Oise département about 22 miles (35 kilometers) north of the city of Paris. Jean Gabin (May 17, 1904 - November 15, 1976) was a major French actor and war hero. L'Année sainte (1976). Deux hommes dans la ville (1973).

La Horse (1970). Le Clan des Siciliens (1969). Le Jardinier d'Argenteuil (1966). Un singe en hiver (1962).

Maigret et l'affaire Saint-Fiacre (1959). Les Misérables (1958). Maigret Tend un Piège (1958). Crime et châtiment (1956).

Chiens perdus sans collier (1955). French CanCan (1955). Touchez pas au grisbi (1954). Martin Roumagnac (1946).

La Bête Humaine (1938). Quai des Brumes (1937). La Grande Illusion (1937). Pepé le Moko (1937).

Maria Chapdelaine (1934). Chacun sa Chance (1930).