Jacques Dumesnil

November 9, 1903 – May 8, 1998

Paris, France

Jacques Dumesnil (born Marie Émile Eugène André Joly ; 9 November 1903 – 8 May 1998) was a French film and television actor. Jacques Dumesnil was born as Marie Émile Eugène André Joly on November 9, 1903, in Paris, France. Before becoming an actor, he received training as a mechanical engineer. After starting as a secretary at the aviation school, he became an industrial designer, a profession he left to devote himself to the theater. He adopted the pseudonym Dumesnil because of the admiration he had to French actor Camille Dumény. He started out as a fanciful singer in a café located in Paris Place de l'Hôtel de Ville , he was paid in sandwiches and glasses of beer. Dumesnil started on stage in 1927 and divided his career between theater and cinema. Having spent two years at the Comédie-Française , he played among other things in Les Tontons flingueurs and provided the French voice of Charlie Chaplin in Monsieur Verdoux (1947) and A King in New York (1957). His role as Duke of Plessis-Vaudreuil in the television series Au Plaisir de Dieu , earned him a resurgence of popularity and the 7 d'Or for best actor. Jacques Dumesnil had a son, Pierre Joly dit Dumesnil , who was a French swimming champion and participated in the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki , Finland.