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Jean Gabin
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Jean Gabin (left) and Simone Simon in a scene from the film La Bête humaine, 1938.
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Jean Gabin (left) and Simone Simon in a scene from the film La Bête humaine, 1938.
Jean Gabin (left) and Simone Simon in a scene from the film La Bête humaine, 1938.

Jean Gabin

French actor
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Also known as: Jean-Alexis Moncorgé
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Quick Facts
Original name:
Jean-Alexis Moncorgé
Born:
May 17, 1904, Paris, France
Died:
Nov. 15, 1976, Paris (aged 72)
Also Known As:
Jean-Alexis Moncorgé
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Jean Gabin (born May 17, 1904, Paris, France—died Nov. 15, 1976, Paris) was one of the most popular film actors in France from the 1930s to the ’60s.

Gabin was the son of a music-hall comedian (stage name Jean Gabin). In 1923 he began a theatrical career in the Folies-Bergère but left the stage after his film debut in Chacun sa chance (1931). He achieved fame in Maria Chapdelaine (1934) and later in Pépé le Moko (1937), directed by Julien Duvivier. One of his most memorable roles was in director Jean Renoir’s Grande Illusion (1937; Grand Illusion), a classic antiwar film. In Quai des brumes (1938; U.S. title, Port of Shadows) and Le Jour se lève (1939; Daybreak), both directed by Marcel Carné, Gabin was cast as a tough-willed son of misfortune surviving in a marginal world of social outcasts. In his later films, he often portrayed detective or gangland figures—e.g., Inspector Maigret and competent professional criminals in Touchez pas au Grisbi (1953), Speaking of Murder (1959), Money, Money, Money (1962), and The Upper Hand (1967).

This article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.