Michel Simon

Michel Simon (born François Joseph Simon, 9 April 1895 – 30 May 1975) was a seminal Swiss‑born actor whose rugged voice and extraordinary physicality made him one of the most recognizable faces of French cinema. Born in Geneva to a German‑origin pork butcher, Joseph Simon, and his Swiss wife Véronique Burnat, he left home as a teenager for Paris, living in the bohemian quarters of Saint‑Martin and Montmartre while juggling odd jobs—from boxing instructor to peddling contraband lighters—to survive. His first forays onto the stage occurred in 1912 as a magician, clown, and acrobat in a variety show, and after a brief stint in the Swiss army and a bout of tuberculosis, he was inspired by Georges Pitoëff’s productions to pursue a professional acting career. By 1920 he was speaking Shakespeare on the boards with Pitoëff’s company and soon became a favorite in light‑comedy roles, gaining the attention of Charles Dullin and later Louis Jouvet. In the early 1930s his theatrical reputation flourished with performances in works by Shakespeare, Shaw, Pirandello and Wilde, but it was the advent of sound film that vaulted him to international fame. He delivered iconic performances in Jean Renoir’s La Chienne (1931) and Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932), starred as the weary old sailor in Jean Vigo’s L'Atalante (1934), and embodied the cynical dock‑worker in Marcel Carné’s Port of Shadows (1938). Over a career that spanned five decades, Simon appeared in more than one hundred films, won the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 1967 Berlin International Film Festival for The Two of Us, and remained a beloved figure despite a tragic accident in the 1950s that left part of his face paralyzed. Eccentric to the end, he preferred the company of animals, built elaborate tunnels for pet monkeys in his Noisy‑le‑Grand house, and collected erotic photographs and films, a trove that was dispersed after his death. He died of a pulmonary embolism at the age of 80 in Bry‑sur‑Marne, France, and was interred beside his parents in Geneva’s Grand‑Lancy Cemetery.