NAVARRE, RENÉ

(1877-1968)

Actor and director. Born in Limoges, René Navarre became one of the great stars of silent film. He got his start atGaumontin 1911, and from the beginning he worked closely withLouis Feuillade. He starred in more than sixty films at Gaumont, and nearly all were directed by Feuillade. Among the Feuillade films in which Navarre appeared wereLa Vie telle qu'elle est(1911),Quand les feuilles tombent(1911),Le Poison(1911),Aux lions les Chrétiens(1911),André Chenier(1911), which Feuillade codirected withEtienne Arnaud,Les Vipères(1911),Le Mort vivant(1912),L'Anneau fatale(1912),L'Homme de proie(1912),La Hantise(1912),Un scandale au village(1913), codirected with Maurice Mariaud,Les Audaces de coeur(1913), codirected withLéonce Perret,Erreur tragique(1913),Le Secret du forçat(1913),Le Revenant(1913),Le Guetapens(1913),L'Écrin du rajah(1913),La Gardienne du feu(1913),La Petite Andalouse(1914),Le Diamant du sénéchal(1914),Manon de Montmartre(1914),Pâcques rouges(1914), andLe Calvaire(1914).

Without any doubt, however, Navarre's most famous role was in Feuillade'sFantômasseries, which ran in 1913 and 1914.Navarre played the title character, and in many ways he was Fantômas, bring to life the slippery evil genius mastermind of a diabolical criminal gang. Given the longstanding reputation of theFantômasseries as one of the classics of the silent cinema and one of the most important and influential film series ever made, it is not an exaggeration to say that Navarre himself passed into legend with his role inFantômas.

Navarre left Gaumont in 1915, the year in which he was mobilized for service in World War I. He was discharged shortly after, at which point he founded his own production company, Films René Navarre, for which directorHenri Diamant-Bergerand director and producer Serge Sandberg both directed films. Navarre, himself, also tried his hand at directing during this period, making such films asLe Document secret(1918),Tue la mort(1920),Le Sept de trèfle(1921),La Reine lumière(1921),L'Homme aux trois masques(1921), andL'Aiglonne(1921).

Navarre also returned to acting, appearing in more than twenty films between 1918 and 1946, includingJean Kemm'sVidocq(1922),Gaston Ravel'sLe Gardien du feu(1924), Mariaud'sMon oncle(1925), Luitz-Morat'sJean Chouan(1926), in which he starred, Maurice Champreux'sJudex 34(1934), Diamant-Berger'sArsène Lupin,détective(1935),Léon Mathot'sChéri-bibi(1937), Jean Dréville'sSon oncle de Normandie(1938), Pierre Caron'sBécassine(1940), and Maurice de Canonge'sLes Trois tambours(1946). During this second phase of his career, Navarre was primarily a supporting actor. Like many other silent film-era actors, he found it difficult to maintain his profile in a medium that had changed dramatically.