Robert Hossein

Acting December 30, 1927 (93 years old) December 31, 2020 Paris, France

Biography

Robert Hossein was a French film actor of Parsi origin, director and writer. He directed the 1982 adaption of Les Misérables, and appeared in Vice and Virtue, Le Casse, Les Uns et les Autres and Venus Beauty Institute. His most recent roles include starring as Michèle Mercier's husband in the Angélique series and as a Catholic priest who falls in love with Claude Jade and becomes a communist in Prêtres interdits (Forbidden Priests) in 1973. Hossein started directing films in 1956 with Les salauds vont en enfer from a story by Frédéric Dard whose novels and plays went on to furnish Hossein with much of his later film material. Right from the start Hossein established his characteristic trademarks: using a seemingly straightforward suspense plot and subverting its conventions (sometimes to the extent of a complete disregard of the traditional demand for a final twist or revelation) in order to concentrate on ritualistic relationships. This is the director's running preoccupation which is always stressed in his films by an extraordinary command of film space and often striking frame compositions where the geometry of human figures and set design is used to accentuate the psychological set-up of the scene. The mechanisms of guilt and the way it destroys relationships is another recurring theme, presumably influenced by Hossein's lifelong interest in the works of Dostoyevski. Although Hossein had some modest international successes with films like Toi, le venin and Le vampire de Dusseldorf, he was much singled out for scorching criticism by the critics and followers of the New Wave for the unashamedly melodramatic frameworks of his films. The fact that he was essentially an auteur director with a consistent set of themes and an extraordinary mastery of original and unusual approaches to staging his stories, was never appreciated. He was not averse to trying his hand at widely different genres and was never defeated, making the strikingly different spaghetti western Une corde, un Colt and the low-budgeted but daringly subversive period drama J'ai tué Raspoutine. However, because of the lack of wider success and continuing adverse criticism, Hossein virtually ended his film directing career in 1970, having concentrated on theatre where his achievements were never questioned, and subsequently returning to film directing only twice. With two or three exceptions, his films remain commercially unavailable and very difficult to see. He is the son of André Hossein a Zoroastrian French composer of Azerbaijani-Tajik descent, and a Jewish comedy actress from Kiev. He was married three times: first to Marina Vlady (he has two sons with her, Pierre and Igor), later to Caroline Eliacheff (with whom he has a son, Nicholas). He is currently married to actress Candice Patou, with whom he has one son, Julien. According to an article written by Emannuel Peze, Hossein experienced a conversion to Catholicism in 1971 during a visit to the Marian apparition at San Damiano in Lombardo Italy. Description above from the Wikipedia article Robert Hossein, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Movies 116

8.3

Once Upon a Time in the West

as Member of Frank's Gang in Flashback (uncredited)

1968

7.2

The Professional

as Commissaire Rosen

1981

7.8

Rififi

as Rémi Grutter

1955

6.7

Angelique

as Jeoffrey de Peyrac

1964

6.5

Angelique and the King

as Jeoffrey de Peyrac

1966

5.9

A Man and a Woman: 20 Years Later

as Robert Hossein

1986

6.4

Angelique and the Sultan

as Joffrey de Peyrac "Le Rescator"

1968

6.4

Cemetery without Crosses

as Manuel

1969

6.7

Les Miserables

as Le maître de cérémonie

1995

5.6

The Wax Mask

as Boris Volkoff

1997

7.8

Shadow of Evil

as Dr. Sinn

1964

6.9

Bolero

as Simon Meyer / Robert Prat

1981

6.9

The Burglars

as Ralph

1971

6.8

Aznavour by Charles

as Self - Actor (archive footage)

2019

4.6

Don Juan or If Don Juan Were a Woman

as Louis Prévost

1973

4.4

I Killed Rasputin

as Serge Sukhotin

1967

7.7

Belmondo by Belmondo

as Self

2016

5.8

Love on a Pillow

as Renaud Sarti

1962

5.2

Marco the Magnificent

as Prince Nayam

1965

6.5

Untamable Angelique

as Joffrey de Peyrac, 'Le Rescator'

1967

5.2

The Battle of El Alamein

as Erwin Rommel

1969

7.7

Belmondo, itinéraire...

as Self

2011

4.2

Trivial

as Antoine Bérangère

2007

6.0

Prêtres interdits

as Jean Rastaud

1973

7.6

The Conspirators

as Leonida Montanari

1969

7.8

Belmondo: The Incorrigible

2022

6.2

The Big Pardon

as Manuel Carreras

1982

6.0

Time of the Wolves

as Dillinger

1970

5.9

Venus Beauty Institute

as L'aviateur

1999

6.3

God's Thunder

as Marcel

1965

5.8

A Man and His Dog

as Un homme a la soupe populaire

2009

5.7

OSS 117 Murder for Sale

as Dr. Saadi

1968

6.4

The Wicked Go to Hell

as Fred

1955

5.6

Vice and Virtue

as SS Oberst Erik Schörndorf

1963

5.8

Madame

as Le sergent François-Joseph Lefebvre

1961

5.2

Lamiel

as Roger Valber

1967

6.6

The Taste of Violence

as Perez

1961

6.0

Enough Rope

as Inspektor Corby

1963

5.4

Children of Chaos

as Robert

1989

5.4

A Murder Is a Murder

as Jean Carouse

1972

6.5

The Scarlet Lady

as Julien

1969

6.2

The Game of Truth

as L'inspecteur de police

1961

6.0

The Dirty Game

as Dupont

1965

5.5

Life Love Death

as Man in the movie

1969

5.3

Riff Raff Girls

as Marcel Point-Bleu

1959

5.7

The Vampire of Dusseldorf

as Peter Kuerten

1965

6.0

Belmondo, il était une fois le beau monde

as Self

2011

8.0

Long March

as Carnot

1966

5.0

Surprise Party

as André Auerbach

1983

5.3

Crime Thief

as Tian

1969

5.2

Love Is Better Than Life

as Robert Prat

2022

6.5

Stranger in the House

as Narrator (voice)

1992

6.2

Death of a Killer

as Pierre Massa

1964

7.0

A Police Officer Without Importance

as Pierre Fresse

1973

Marie-France Pisier, une femme sous influence

as Self

2014

6.7

A Little Virtuous

as Louis Brady

1968

5.9

Falling Point

as Le Caïd

1970

6.1

Mademoiselle de Maupin

as Captain Alcibiade

1966

5.5

The Lion's Share

as Maurice Ménard

1971

7.0

Crime and Punishment

as René Brunel

1956

5.0

The Phoney

as Kaminsky

1975

3.7

San Antonio

as Le ministre de l'intérieur / The Minister

2004

6.1

Hitch-Hike

as Edouard, le fou

1962

10.0

Of Flesh and Blood

as Samuel

1963

7.0

Paradjanov, le dernier collage

as Self

1995

6.0

Desert Assault

as Capitaine Curd Heinz (Rudi en Français)

1969

Une femme nommée Marie

as Narrator (voice)

2011

6.1

The Other Truth

as Pierre Montaud, the Advocate

1966

5.8

The Road to Shame

as Pierre Rossi

1959

5.1

Levy & Goliath

as Goliath customer (uncredited)

1987

6.5

Judge Roy Bean

as Black Bird

1971

5.6

Maya

as Un témoin du meurtre qui n'a rien vu (uncredited)

1949

Stars Meet in Moscow

as Self

1959

6.8

Blonde in a White Car

as Pierre Menda

1959

5.6

Double Agents

as Lui

1959

5.5

No Sun in Venice

as Sforzi

1957

7.0

Les fleurs maladives de Georges Franju

as Self

2009

6.3

Tender Moment

as Enrico Fontana

1968

8.0

Le commissaire mène l’enquête

as The lover (segment "Pour qui sonne le ...")

1965

6.0

Forgive Our Trespasses

as (uncredited)

1956

7.5

Démons de midi

as Metteur en scène de théâtre

1979

4.8

The Man Who Betrayed the Mafia

as Maître Bianchini

1967

7.0

Highway Pick-Up

as Daniel Boisset

1963

5.8

Quai des blondes

as Chemise Rose

1954

3.8

Misdeal

as Martin von Klaus

1969

7.5

The Verdict

as Georges Lagrange

1959

7.2

Take Me As I Am

as Ed Dawson

1960

6.3

Marked Eyes

as Franz

1964

8.0

Le Tour d'Écrou

as Peter Quint

1974

Raymond Devos dans tous ses sens

as Self

2022

6.5

Denn sie kennen kein Erbarmen - Der Italowestern

as Self

2006

6.4

The Wretches

as Jess Rooland

1960

6.3

Série noire

as Jo

1955

4.8

Hellé

as Kleber

1972

6.5

Brigade Anti Gangs

as Chief Commissioner Le Goff

1966

5.0

Provisional Liberty

as Jean-Paul Viberty / Jean Rungis

1958

4.0

Scandalous Crimes

as Judge Bocchi

1999

Hossein, Ronet, Trintignant : Confidences de trois acteurs inoubliables

as Self (archive footage)

2021

4.2

The Protector

as Arnaud

1974

9.0

La croisade des enfants

as Philippe-Auguste

1988

6.7

Paris Pick-Up

as Robert Herbin

1962

7.0

In the Eyes of Memory

as A student from the Simon course

1948

3.6

L'Affaire

as Paul Haslans

1994

8.0

Annie Girardot, ainsi va la vie

as Self

2008

5.6

Young Girls Beware

as Raven

1957

3.6

Versatile Lovers

as Serge Belaïeff

1970

6.5

The Devil Who Limped

as Guest in white (uncredited)

1948

5.1

La Musica

as Him

1967

9.0

Why Paris?

1964

Du rififi chez les hommes - Jules Dassin, l'élégance du noir

as Himself

2009

Noni : Le Fruit de l'espoir

as Le grand-père d'Angeli

2020

8.0

Sextette

1948

5.9

The Menace

as Savary

1961

6.5

Antigone

as Créon

2003

7.0

Le Caviar rouge

as Alex

1986

Picking Strawberries

2025

TV Shows 19

8.5

Apostrophes

as Self

1975

3.6

Vivement dimanche

as Self

1998

6.8

Champs-Elysées

as Self

1982

9.5

Spécial cinéma

as Self

1974

5.7

Sacrée soirée

as Self

1987

6.0

Midi trente

as Self

1972

8.0

Le Grand Échiquier

as Self

1972

8.0

Le Grand Échiquier

as Self - Main Guest

1972

6.1

Nulle part ailleurs

as Self

1987

7.4

The Little Murders of Agatha Christie

as Simon

2009

6.0

Samedi soir

as Self

1971

8.7

Cinépanorama

as Self

1956

5.0

Téléthon

as Self

1987

6.2

Stars 90

as Self

1990

5.0

Reflets de Cannes

as Self

1954

7.7

Petits Meurtres en famille

as Simon

2006

8.0

Henry James Stories

as Peter Quint

1976

6.2

Le Gorille

as Joseph Beaucis

1990

9.3

Le Juge

as Roger Marino

2005