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07 May 2014

Jean Gaven (1918-2014)

On 5 May 2014, French actor Jean Gaven has died. He appeared in more than sixty films between 1942 and 1996, often in supporting roles.

Jean Gaven (1922-2014)
French postcard by Editions P.I., presented by Les Carbones Korès Carboplane, no. 910. Photo: Studio Vallois, Paris.

Histoire d'O


Jean Henri Pierre Gaven was born in Saint-Rome de Cernon, France in 1918. He made his debut at the age of 18 in Nice, in Max Révol's music-hall troupe, where he rubbed shoulders with Louis de Funès, then a pianist, Roger Pierre and Jean-Marc Thibault, and a little later Darry Cowl, a pianist. He then performed in operetta for 10 years

Gaven played leading and supporting roles on stage, screen and television. he made his film debut in Les cadets de l’océan (Jean Dréville, 1942-1946), a chronicle of the life of young men who joined the French Navy. The film was forbidden by the Germans during the occupation, hence its release four years later. After the war, Gaven played young, sporty and sympathetic leads in adventure, detective, comedy, drama and music films. Later, he often played second fiddle to major stars such as Jean Gabin, Simone Signoret and Fernandel.

Among his best-known films are Ils étaient cinq/They Were Five (Jacques Pinoteau, 1951) about the men returning from WW2, the comedy Le boulanger de Valorgue/The Wild Oat (Henri Verneuil, 1954) with Fernandel, the crime drama Obsession (Jean Delannoy, 1954) starring Michèle Morgan and Raf Vallone, and the thriller Si tous les gars du monde/If All the Guys in the World (Christian-Jacque, 1955), a hymn to brotherhood, solidarity and responsibility. Another interesting film was the Arthur Miller adaptation Les sorcières de Salem/The Crucible (Raymond Rouleau, 1957) starring Yves Montand and Simone Signoret.

From the 1960s, Gaven often worked for television. French TV audiences loved him in the title role of the soap opera Maurin des Maures/The illustrious Maurin (Jean Canolle, Claude Daggers, 1970). Among his later noted films are the crime drama Le pacha/Pasha (Georges Lautner, 1968) starring Jean Gabin, Le passager de la pluie/Rider on the Rain (René Clément, 1970) starring Charles Bronson, the SM erotic film Histoire d'O/The Story of O (Just Jaeckin, 1975) and the massive hit L'été meurtrier/One Deadly Summer (Jean Becker, 1983) with Isabelle Adjani.

Jean Gaven was married to actress Dominique Wilms in 1957. He died in 2014 in Paris. Gaven was 96.

Dominique Wilms
Dominique Wilms. French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 28G. Photo: Lucienne Chevert.

Sources: Les gens de Cinéma (Frenc), Wikipedia (French and English) and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 8 May 2024.

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