Suave and debonair American actor Adolphe Menjou (1890-1963), with his trademark waxy black moustache, was one of Hollywood's most distinguished stars and one of America's 'Best Dressed Men'. He started as a matinee idol in the silent cinema in such classics as Ernst Lubitsch's The Marriage Circle (1924). His sound films included Morocco (1931) with Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper, A Star is Born (1937), and Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory (1957) with Kirk Douglas. In 1931, he was nominated for an Oscar for The Front Page (1931).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1810/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Fanamet. Adolphe Menjou in The Sorrows of Satan (D.W. Griffith, 1926).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3259/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Paramount.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3337/2, 1928-1929. Photo: Paramount.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4101/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount. Albert Menjou in The Front Page (Lewis Milestone, 1931).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4102/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount. Adolphe Menjou and Evelyn Brent in His Tiger Wife (Hobart Henley, 1928).
Adolphe Jean Menjou was born in 1890 in Pittsburgh. He was the elder son of hotel manager Albert Menjou. His Irish mother, Nora Menjou-Joyce, was a distant cousin of the famous Irish author James Joyce. Menjou had a younger brother, Henri Menjou, who made an attempt to become an actor and played in three films for Paramount in the mid-1930s.
Their French émigré father moved the family to Cleveland, where he operated a chain of restaurants. He disapproved of show business and sent his son to Culver Military Academy in Indiana in the hopes of dissuading him from an acting career. Later, at Cornell University, Menjou abruptly changed his major from engineering to liberal arts and began auditioning for college plays.
He did some vaudeville work, and from 1915 on, he appeared as an extra for such film studios as Vitagraph, Edison and Biograph. During World War I, he served as a captain with the Ambulance Corps in France. After the war, he found employment off-camera as a production manager and unit manager.
After six years of struggle, he finally broke into the top ranks with substantial roles in The Faith Healer (George Melford, 1921) and Through the Back Door (Alfred E. Green, Jack Pickford, 1921), starring Mary Pickford. He earned a Paramount contract and played Louis XIII in The Three Musketeers (Fred Niblo, 1921), starring Douglas Fairbanks, and the influential writer Raoul de Saint Hubert in Rudolph Valentino's classic The Sheik (George Melford, 1921).
Menjou established his slick prototype as the urbane ladies' man and wealthy roué opposite Edna Purviance in Charlie Chaplin's A Woman of Paris (1923). Paramount capitalised on Menjou's playboy image by casting him as matinee leads in Broadway After Dark (Monta Bell, 1924), Sinners in Silk (Hobart Henley, 1924), The Ace of Cads (Luther Reed, 1926), A Social Celebrity (Malcolm St. Clair, 1926) and A Gentleman of Paris (Harry d'Abbadie d'Arrast, 1927).
Spanish collectors card by Chocolates Amatller, Barcelona, in the 'Artistas de cine' series, no. 29: Adolphe Menjou. Image: Martinez Surroca.
French postcard by Europe, France, no. 257. Photo: Films Paramount.
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 136. Photo: Witzel.
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 281.
German postcard by Ross Verlag Foreign, no. 3337/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Paramount.
The stock market crash led to the termination of Adolphe Menjou's Paramount contract and his status as a leading man. Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "MGM took him on at half his Paramount salary, and his fluency in such languages as French and Spanish kept him employed at the beginning. Rivalling Gary Cooper for the attentions of Marlene Dietrich in Morocco (1930) started the ball rolling for Menjou as a dressy second lead. Rarely placed in leads following this period, he managed his one and only Oscar nomination for Best Actor with his performance as editor Walter Burns in The Front Page (Lewis Milestone, 1931)."
Other successful films include Forbidden (Frank Capra, 1932), Little Miss Marker (Alexander Hall, 1934), A Star is Born (William A. Wellman, 1937), Stage Door (Gregory La Cava, 1937) and Golden Boy (Rouben Mamoulian, 1939). During the war, he entertained the troops overseas and worked for the radio. He played the slick and slimy lawyer Billy Flynn opposite Ginger Rogers in Roxie Hart (William A. Wellman, 1942). After the war, he played secondary parts in The Hucksters (Jack Conway, 1947) and State of the Union (Frank Capra, 1948).
His last lead was in the crackerjack thriller The Sniper (Edward Dmytryk, 1952). His role was a San Francisco homicide detective tracking down a killer who preys on women in San Francisco. For the first time in nearly two decades, he appeared without his moustache.
In 1947, Menjou cooperated with the House Committee on Un-American Activities in its hunt for communists in Hollywood. Menjou was a leading member of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, a group formed to oppose communist influence in Hollywood. His last notable film was the classic anti-war picture Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957) in which he played the villainous General Broulard. After Disney's Pollyanna (David Swift, 1960), featuring Hayley Mills, he retired from acting.
In 1963, Adolphe Menjou died in his home in Beverly Hills after a nine-month battle with hepatitis. He married three times. His second wife was actress and co-star Kathryn Carver. They married in 1928 and divorced in 1934. In 1934, he married actress Verree Teasdale, with whom he had an adopted son, Peter. His autobiography was called 'It Took Nine Tailors' (1947).
British Real Hand-Coloured Photograph postcard, no. 3384/1. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for Service for Ladies (Harry d'Abbadie d'Arrast, 1927) with Kathryn Carver.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3994/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4101/2, 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for His Tiger Wife (Hobart Henley, 1928).
French postcard by Erpé, no. 398. Photo: Film Samuel Goldwyn.
Belgian postcard for Ons Huis, 1932. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The card states that these are Lily Damita and Adolphe Menjou in Soyons gais (Arthur Robison, 1931), the French language version of the American sound film Let Us Be Gay (1930). We think, however, that this card shows not Lily Damita but probably Lya Lys, who had a supporting part in the film. Other actors in the film were Mona Goya (another option for this card) and Françoise Rosay.
British postcard by Film Weekly. Photo: Fox Film. Benita Hume and Adolphe Menjou in the American pre-Code movie The Worst Woman in Paris? (Monta Bell, 1933).
German collector card in the Moderne Schönheitsgalerie Series by Ross Verlag, second series, no. 221 (of 300). Photo: Radio Pict. Corp. Adolphe Menjou and Katharine Hepburn in Morning Glory (Lowell Sherman, 1933). The card was a supplement to 'Edelzigarette' (precious cigarette) Kurmark.
Sources: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.
This post was last updated on 30 July 2025.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1810/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Fanamet. Adolphe Menjou in The Sorrows of Satan (D.W. Griffith, 1926).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3259/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Paramount.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3337/2, 1928-1929. Photo: Paramount.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4101/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount. Albert Menjou in The Front Page (Lewis Milestone, 1931).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4102/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount. Adolphe Menjou and Evelyn Brent in His Tiger Wife (Hobart Henley, 1928).
Urbane ladies' man and wealthy roué
Adolphe Jean Menjou was born in 1890 in Pittsburgh. He was the elder son of hotel manager Albert Menjou. His Irish mother, Nora Menjou-Joyce, was a distant cousin of the famous Irish author James Joyce. Menjou had a younger brother, Henri Menjou, who made an attempt to become an actor and played in three films for Paramount in the mid-1930s.
Their French émigré father moved the family to Cleveland, where he operated a chain of restaurants. He disapproved of show business and sent his son to Culver Military Academy in Indiana in the hopes of dissuading him from an acting career. Later, at Cornell University, Menjou abruptly changed his major from engineering to liberal arts and began auditioning for college plays.
He did some vaudeville work, and from 1915 on, he appeared as an extra for such film studios as Vitagraph, Edison and Biograph. During World War I, he served as a captain with the Ambulance Corps in France. After the war, he found employment off-camera as a production manager and unit manager.
After six years of struggle, he finally broke into the top ranks with substantial roles in The Faith Healer (George Melford, 1921) and Through the Back Door (Alfred E. Green, Jack Pickford, 1921), starring Mary Pickford. He earned a Paramount contract and played Louis XIII in The Three Musketeers (Fred Niblo, 1921), starring Douglas Fairbanks, and the influential writer Raoul de Saint Hubert in Rudolph Valentino's classic The Sheik (George Melford, 1921).
Menjou established his slick prototype as the urbane ladies' man and wealthy roué opposite Edna Purviance in Charlie Chaplin's A Woman of Paris (1923). Paramount capitalised on Menjou's playboy image by casting him as matinee leads in Broadway After Dark (Monta Bell, 1924), Sinners in Silk (Hobart Henley, 1924), The Ace of Cads (Luther Reed, 1926), A Social Celebrity (Malcolm St. Clair, 1926) and A Gentleman of Paris (Harry d'Abbadie d'Arrast, 1927).
Spanish collectors card by Chocolates Amatller, Barcelona, in the 'Artistas de cine' series, no. 29: Adolphe Menjou. Image: Martinez Surroca.
French postcard by Europe, France, no. 257. Photo: Films Paramount.
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 136. Photo: Witzel.
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 281.
German postcard by Ross Verlag Foreign, no. 3337/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Paramount.
Rivalling Gary Cooper for the attentions of Marlene Dietrich
The stock market crash led to the termination of Adolphe Menjou's Paramount contract and his status as a leading man. Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "MGM took him on at half his Paramount salary, and his fluency in such languages as French and Spanish kept him employed at the beginning. Rivalling Gary Cooper for the attentions of Marlene Dietrich in Morocco (1930) started the ball rolling for Menjou as a dressy second lead. Rarely placed in leads following this period, he managed his one and only Oscar nomination for Best Actor with his performance as editor Walter Burns in The Front Page (Lewis Milestone, 1931)."
Other successful films include Forbidden (Frank Capra, 1932), Little Miss Marker (Alexander Hall, 1934), A Star is Born (William A. Wellman, 1937), Stage Door (Gregory La Cava, 1937) and Golden Boy (Rouben Mamoulian, 1939). During the war, he entertained the troops overseas and worked for the radio. He played the slick and slimy lawyer Billy Flynn opposite Ginger Rogers in Roxie Hart (William A. Wellman, 1942). After the war, he played secondary parts in The Hucksters (Jack Conway, 1947) and State of the Union (Frank Capra, 1948).
His last lead was in the crackerjack thriller The Sniper (Edward Dmytryk, 1952). His role was a San Francisco homicide detective tracking down a killer who preys on women in San Francisco. For the first time in nearly two decades, he appeared without his moustache.
In 1947, Menjou cooperated with the House Committee on Un-American Activities in its hunt for communists in Hollywood. Menjou was a leading member of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, a group formed to oppose communist influence in Hollywood. His last notable film was the classic anti-war picture Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957) in which he played the villainous General Broulard. After Disney's Pollyanna (David Swift, 1960), featuring Hayley Mills, he retired from acting.
In 1963, Adolphe Menjou died in his home in Beverly Hills after a nine-month battle with hepatitis. He married three times. His second wife was actress and co-star Kathryn Carver. They married in 1928 and divorced in 1934. In 1934, he married actress Verree Teasdale, with whom he had an adopted son, Peter. His autobiography was called 'It Took Nine Tailors' (1947).
British Real Hand-Coloured Photograph postcard, no. 3384/1. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for Service for Ladies (Harry d'Abbadie d'Arrast, 1927) with Kathryn Carver.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3994/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4101/2, 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for His Tiger Wife (Hobart Henley, 1928).
French postcard by Erpé, no. 398. Photo: Film Samuel Goldwyn.
Belgian postcard for Ons Huis, 1932. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The card states that these are Lily Damita and Adolphe Menjou in Soyons gais (Arthur Robison, 1931), the French language version of the American sound film Let Us Be Gay (1930). We think, however, that this card shows not Lily Damita but probably Lya Lys, who had a supporting part in the film. Other actors in the film were Mona Goya (another option for this card) and Françoise Rosay.
British postcard by Film Weekly. Photo: Fox Film. Benita Hume and Adolphe Menjou in the American pre-Code movie The Worst Woman in Paris? (Monta Bell, 1933).
German collector card in the Moderne Schönheitsgalerie Series by Ross Verlag, second series, no. 221 (of 300). Photo: Radio Pict. Corp. Adolphe Menjou and Katharine Hepburn in Morning Glory (Lowell Sherman, 1933). The card was a supplement to 'Edelzigarette' (precious cigarette) Kurmark.
Sources: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.
This post was last updated on 30 July 2025.
No comments:
Post a Comment