Andrew Brunelle

Andrew Brunelle (1894-1943) was an actor in the French silent cinema. Later he worked as a film director.


French postcard by Coquemer Gravures, Paris. Photo: Gaumont. Still for La nouvelle mission de Judex/The New Mission of Judex (Louis Feuillade, 1917-1918).

Judex

André François Achille Eugène Brunelle was born in Cambrai in the North of France in 1894.

In 1917 he debuted as a film actor in the part of the evil Dr. Howey in the French crime serial La nouvelle mission de Judex/The New Mission of Judex (1917-1918), directed by Louis Feuillade.

Until the mid-1920s, he had a regular career in French silent cinema, acting in La maison d’argile/The clay house (Gaston Ravel, 1918) with Léon Mathot, and Chignole (René Plaisetty, 1919; released in 1927 as La grande envolée/The great).

In La force de la vie/The Force of Life (René Leprince, 1920) Brunelle had the lead of a Parisian who gets involved in a Corsican feud. Afterwards, he played in two films by Louis Delluc: Le silence/The Silence (1920) with Ève Francis and Gabriel Signoret, and Fièvre/Fever (1921) with again Francis and Edmond Van Daële.

These were followed by Le Carilloneur (René Coiffard, 1922) starring Edouard de Max, Stella lucente (Raul d’Auchy, 1922) in which Brunelle had the lead, L’aiglonne/The Synonymous (Emile Keppens, René Navarre, 1922), L’empereur des pauvres/The Emperor of the poor (René Leprince, 1922) starring Léon Mathot, and La faute des autres/The fault of others (Jacques Oliver, 1923) starring Charles de Rochefort.


French postcard. in the Les Vedettes du Cinéma series by Editions Filma, no. 90. Photo: Pathé Consortium Cinéma.

Directing, writing, editing

In 1923 Andrew Brunelle directed his first film, the comedy Théodore cherche des allumettes/Theodore Looks for Matches (1923), featuring René Hiéronimus.

After a gap of several years, he returned to the screen in 1929, directing La robe/The Dress (1929) with Paul Capellani and acting in the early sound film Tarakanova (Raymond Bernard, 1930), starring Édith Jéhanne and Olaf Fjord.

It was his last film part.

Under the name of André Brunelle, he directed three sound films in the 1930s, Bouton d’or/Buttercup (1933) with Jeanne Helbling, Vaccin 48 (1934) with Alice Tissot, and Ernest a le filon/Ernest the Vein (1935).

He also wrote the script for one film, the comedy Deux de la reserve/Two of the Reserve (René Pujol, 1938) and edited another comedy, Bach en correctionelle/Bach in the Correctional (Henry Wulschleger, 1940) with the popular comedian Bach.

Andrew Brunelle died in Paris in 1943.


Spanish collectors card by Chocolate Pi, Barcelona, card 47 of 54. Photo: a scene from La Nouvelle mission de Judex (Louis Feuillade, 1917-1918). The man on the right could be Andrew Brunelle as the hypnotizing Dr. Howey.

Source: Cineressources.bifi.fr and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 19 August 2023.