Édouard Mathé (1886-1934) was an extremely popular French actor, in particular in the silent crime serials by Louis Feuillade.
French postcard. Sent by mail in 1922. Photo: Film Gaumont.
French postcard by Coquemer Gravures, Paris. Photo: Gaumont. Still for La nouvelle mission de Judex (Louis Feuillade, 1917-1918) with René Cresté.
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 83. Photo: Studio Henri Lebrun.
Édouard Mathé was born in Australia (unknown where exactly) in 1886.
In 1914, he started his career as a film actor at the French company Gaumont. He remained a fixed actor for Gaumont director Louis Feuillade, who had already directed him in Mathé’s first film, L'Hôtel de la gare (Louis Feuillade, 1914).
After some ten shorts in 1914-1915, Feuillade replaced his former leading actor René Navarre with Mathé and gave him the leading role of the journalist Philippe de Guérande, protagonist of the crime serial film Les Vampires (1915-1916).
Together with a reformed criminal, Mazamette (Marcel Lévesque), Guérande fights the gang of the Vampires, including the fatal beauty Irma Vep, played by Musidora As the police were ridiculed in the series, the real police prefect of Paris forbade the screenings for a while.
Mathé also acted in Feuillade’s subsequent serials Judex (1916-1917), La nouvelle mission de Judex (1917-1918), Tih Minh (1918-1919), Vendémiaire (1918-1919), Barrabas (1919), Les deux gamines (1921), L’Orpheline (1921), and Parisette (1921-1922), the latter three starring Sandra Milowanoff.
In between, Feuillade continued to direct Mathé in several individual films, which, though, were less successful.
French postcard by Coquemer Gravures, Paris. Photo: Gaumont. Still for La nouvelle mission de Judex (Louis Feuillade, 1917-1918).
Spanish collector card by Chocolate Pi, Barcelona. card no. 53 of 54. Edouard Mathé as Roger de Tremeuse and probably Georgette de Nerys as Primerose in La Nouvelle mission de Judex (Louis Feuillade, 1917-1918).
French postcard by Coquemer Gravures, Paris. Photo: Gaumont. Still for La nouvelle mission de Judex (Louis Feuillade, 1917-1918).
Édouard Mathé starred as Roger de Tremeuse, the hero's brother, in Judex (Louis Feuillade, 1916-1917). After the upheaval of Les Vampires (which was later cherished by the Surrealists), Judex was less anti-establishment and closer to bourgeois morals.
The positive hero, played by René Cresté, is a black caped avenger who kidnaps the evil banker Favraux (Louis Leubas), who has caused his father's death. Musidora is the banker's evil mistress and governess of his grandson. Marcel Lévesque plays the clumsy amateur detective Cocantin, Yvette Andreyor the banker's innocent daughter and widower Jacqueline, and Olinda Mano her little son Jean.
Mathé often played a relative or buddy of René Cresté in subsequent Feuillade serials such as the sequel to Judex: La nouvelle mission de Judex / The New Mission of Judex (1917-1918), Tih Minh (1918-1919) and Vendémiaire (1918-1919), until Cresté was fed up with Feuillade’s serials
René Cresté started his own film company, with disastrous effects. He died of tuberculosis in 1922 Mathé himself quit filmmaking with Feuillade in 1922 after Parisette (Louis Feuillade, 1921).
After a handful of films in 1923-1924, including the two Mario Ausonia films Mes p’tits (1923) and La course à l’amour / The Race to Love (1924), both directed by Charles Keppens and Paul Barlatier, he quit acting in film altogether. Édouard Mathé died in Brussels in 1934.
Spanish postcard. Photo: Film Gaumont.
French postcard in the Les Vedettes de l'Écran series by Editions Filma, no. 116.
French postcard by Cinématographes Méric. Photo Henri Lebrun, Paris. This card was made for a folder with cards on the film Mes p'tits aka Le Calvaire d'une saltimbanque (Paul Barlatier, Charles Keppens, 1923), starring the Italian forzuto Mario Guaita - Ausonia.
French postcard by Cinématographes Méric. Edouard Mathé and Gina Relly in Mes p'tits (Paul Barlatier, Charles Keppens, 1923).
Sources: Wikipedia (English, French and Italian), and IMDb.
This post was last updated on 10 June 2025.
French postcard. Sent by mail in 1922. Photo: Film Gaumont.
French postcard by Coquemer Gravures, Paris. Photo: Gaumont. Still for La nouvelle mission de Judex (Louis Feuillade, 1917-1918) with René Cresté.
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 83. Photo: Studio Henri Lebrun.
Les Vampires
Édouard Mathé was born in Australia (unknown where exactly) in 1886.
In 1914, he started his career as a film actor at the French company Gaumont. He remained a fixed actor for Gaumont director Louis Feuillade, who had already directed him in Mathé’s first film, L'Hôtel de la gare (Louis Feuillade, 1914).
After some ten shorts in 1914-1915, Feuillade replaced his former leading actor René Navarre with Mathé and gave him the leading role of the journalist Philippe de Guérande, protagonist of the crime serial film Les Vampires (1915-1916).
Together with a reformed criminal, Mazamette (Marcel Lévesque), Guérande fights the gang of the Vampires, including the fatal beauty Irma Vep, played by Musidora As the police were ridiculed in the series, the real police prefect of Paris forbade the screenings for a while.
Mathé also acted in Feuillade’s subsequent serials Judex (1916-1917), La nouvelle mission de Judex (1917-1918), Tih Minh (1918-1919), Vendémiaire (1918-1919), Barrabas (1919), Les deux gamines (1921), L’Orpheline (1921), and Parisette (1921-1922), the latter three starring Sandra Milowanoff.
In between, Feuillade continued to direct Mathé in several individual films, which, though, were less successful.
French postcard by Coquemer Gravures, Paris. Photo: Gaumont. Still for La nouvelle mission de Judex (Louis Feuillade, 1917-1918).
Spanish collector card by Chocolate Pi, Barcelona. card no. 53 of 54. Edouard Mathé as Roger de Tremeuse and probably Georgette de Nerys as Primerose in La Nouvelle mission de Judex (Louis Feuillade, 1917-1918).
French postcard by Coquemer Gravures, Paris. Photo: Gaumont. Still for La nouvelle mission de Judex (Louis Feuillade, 1917-1918).
Judex
Édouard Mathé starred as Roger de Tremeuse, the hero's brother, in Judex (Louis Feuillade, 1916-1917). After the upheaval of Les Vampires (which was later cherished by the Surrealists), Judex was less anti-establishment and closer to bourgeois morals.
The positive hero, played by René Cresté, is a black caped avenger who kidnaps the evil banker Favraux (Louis Leubas), who has caused his father's death. Musidora is the banker's evil mistress and governess of his grandson. Marcel Lévesque plays the clumsy amateur detective Cocantin, Yvette Andreyor the banker's innocent daughter and widower Jacqueline, and Olinda Mano her little son Jean.
Mathé often played a relative or buddy of René Cresté in subsequent Feuillade serials such as the sequel to Judex: La nouvelle mission de Judex / The New Mission of Judex (1917-1918), Tih Minh (1918-1919) and Vendémiaire (1918-1919), until Cresté was fed up with Feuillade’s serials
René Cresté started his own film company, with disastrous effects. He died of tuberculosis in 1922 Mathé himself quit filmmaking with Feuillade in 1922 after Parisette (Louis Feuillade, 1921).
After a handful of films in 1923-1924, including the two Mario Ausonia films Mes p’tits (1923) and La course à l’amour / The Race to Love (1924), both directed by Charles Keppens and Paul Barlatier, he quit acting in film altogether. Édouard Mathé died in Brussels in 1934.
Spanish postcard. Photo: Film Gaumont.
French postcard in the Les Vedettes de l'Écran series by Editions Filma, no. 116.
French postcard by Cinématographes Méric. Photo Henri Lebrun, Paris. This card was made for a folder with cards on the film Mes p'tits aka Le Calvaire d'une saltimbanque (Paul Barlatier, Charles Keppens, 1923), starring the Italian forzuto Mario Guaita - Ausonia.
French postcard by Cinématographes Méric. Edouard Mathé and Gina Relly in Mes p'tits (Paul Barlatier, Charles Keppens, 1923).
Sources: Wikipedia (English, French and Italian), and IMDb.
This post was last updated on 10 June 2025.
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