Born August 28, 1899 in the small town of Figeac, France, the son of a merchant and his wife, Charles Boyer was an internationally famous actor who appeared in more than eighty films between 1920 and 1976. A philosophy student, he entertained soldiers while working as orderly in a local hospital during World War I. He made both his stage and screen debuts in 1920.

Boyer was signed by MGM in 1929 and made several films for the studio, the most noteworthy being 1932’s Red-Headed Woman as Jean Harlow’s chauffer. Dissatisfied with his Hollywood career, he returned to France where he had a major hit with 1934’s Liliom. Back in the U.S. he had his first starring role in 1934’s Caravan opposite Loretta Young. That same year he married his wife, actress Pat Paterson.

A major star now, the actor had major successes from the mid to late 1930s with Private Worlds opposite Oscar nominated Claudette Colbert; Break of Hearts opposite Katharine Hepburn; the French Mayerling opposite Danielle Darrieux ; The Garden of Allah opposite Marlene Dietrich; History Is Made at Night opposite Jean Arthur; Conquest as Napoleon opposite Greta Garbo (his first Oscar nomination); Tovarich again opposite Colbert; Algiers (his second Oscar nomination) opposite Hedy Lamarr; Love Affair opposite Oscar nominated Irene Dunne and When Tomorrow Comes also opposite Dunne.

The 1940s brought All This, and Heaven Too opposite Bette Davis; Back Street opposite Margaret Sullavan; Hold Back the Dawn opposite Oscar nominated Olivia de Havilland; The Constant Nymph opposite Oscar nominated Joan Fontaine; Gaslight opposite Oscar winner Ingrid Bergman (his own third Oscar nomination); Cluny Brown opposite Jennifer Jones and Arch of Triumph again opposite Bergman.

Boyer won his own Oscar, a special one for his establishment of the French Research Foundation in Los Angeles during World War I.

The actor’s 1950s output included The Earrings of Madame de… back in France opposite Danielle Darrieux; The Cobweb in support of Richard Widmark and Lauren Bacall; a four year run on TV’s Four Star Playhouse; a cameo in Around the World in 80 Days and a major supporting role in The Buccaneer.

Boyer received his fourth and final Oscar nomination for 1961’s Fanny after which he continued to play major roles on TV and Broadway while playing major supporting roles on screen. His most notable late career performances were in 1967’s Barefoot in the Park; 1973’s Lost Horizon and the 1974 French film, Stavisky for which he received a New York Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Boyer’s only son committed suicide at the age of 21 in 1967 after breaking up with his girlfriend Boyer himself committed suicide on August 26, 1978 two days after the death of his wife and two days before what would have been his 79th birthday.
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ESSENTIAL FILMS

THE GARDEN OF ALLAH (1936), directed by Richard Boleslawski

One of the most gorgeously photographed films of the 1930s, this sumptuous romance won a special Oscar for its color cinematography and nominations for Assistant Director and Score.

An enchanting Marlene Dietrich and a smoldering Boyer are at the top of their game as a beautiful woman looking for meaning in life and a Trappist Monk undergoing a crisis of faith. Boleslaski’s flawless direction also provides superb acting opportunities for Basil Rathbone; C. Aubrey Smith; Joseph Schildkraut; John Carradine; Lucile Watson and Tilly Losch.

HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT (1937), directed by Frank Borzage

One of Borzage’s most romantic films, Boyer and Jean Arthur display incredible on-screen chemistry in this transatlantic romance in which he plays a man on the run from a possible murder charge and she is the unhappily married wife of an alcoholic.

Colin Clive, in his next to last film, gives a tortured performance as Arthur’s husband filmed just months before his own real life death from alcoholism. Leo Carillo heads the supporting cast.

This, and not Conquest, is the film Boyer should have received his 1937 Oscar nomination for.

GASLIGHT (1944), directed by George Cukor

Boyer is once again suave and romantic but this time he is also a cold-blooded murderer out to drive his wife insane. Nominated for seven Oscars including Best Picture, Ingrid Bergman won her first Oscar as the wife while Boyer and Angela Lansbury as the Cockney maid received nominations, the latter for her first film. The film also features memorable performances by Joseph Cotton and Dame May Whitty.

While Bergman got the Oscar and Boyer had to settle for this third nomination, his is in some ways the more memorable performance. Bergman, always a strong actress, is hard to accept as a naïve woman but Boyer is flawless as her conniving husband.

FANNY (1961), directed by Joshua Logan

The film version of Harold Rome’s 1954 musical adaptation of Marcel Pagnol’s 1930s French film trilogy Marius; Fanny and Cesar retains Rome’s music but omits the lyrics in this nevertheless engaging film that earned five Oscar nominations including Best Picture.

Boyer plays Cesar, the father of the boy Marius who goes off to sea not knowing that Fanny, girl he left behind is pregnant. It’s Cesar’s contemporary and wealthy friend, Panisse, who marries Fanny to give her child a name.

The acting of Leslie Caron as Fanny; Maurice Chevalier as Panisse; Horst Buchholz as Marius and Boyer is first-rate. Caron and Chevalier were nominated for Golden Globes for their performances but it was Boyer who got the Oscar nomination, his fourth for Best Actor.

LOST HORIZON (1973), directed by Charles Jarrott

This musical remake of the 1937 Frank Capra classic was generally dismissed by the critics for the less than stellar score by Burt Bacharach and Hal David and the odd casting of non-singers Peter Finch and Liv Ullman in the singing roles once played straight by Ronald Colman and Jane Wyatt. The score may not be the greatest, but supporting players James Shigeta; Sally Kellerman; Bobby Van and Olivia Hussey do just fine even if the more celebrated leads do not.

No one can dispute the fine non-singing performances of John Gielgud as The Guide and Boyer as the High Lama played by Oscar nominated H.B. Warner and Sam Jaffe respectively in the original. Boyer is especially memorable as the 200 year-old monk.

CHARLES BOYER AND OSCAR

• Conquest (1937) – nominated Best Actor
• Algiers (1938) – nominated Best Actor
• Special Oscar (1942) – Oscar – For his progressive cultural achievement in establishing the French Research Foundation in Los Angeles as a source of reference.
• Gaslight (1944) – nominated Best Actor
• Fanny (1961) – nominated Best Actor