Robert Hossein

Born

December 30, 1927

Died

December 31, 2020 (93 years old)

Known For

Acting

Place of Birth

Paris, France

IMDb

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.

Known For

6.0

2009

The Little Murders of Agatha Christie

Simon · (0 episode)

7.4

2009

Annie Girardot, ainsi va la vie

Self

8.0

2008

Trivial

Antoine Bérangère

4.2

2007

Petits Meurtres en famille

Simon · (4 episodes)

7.9

2006

Denn sie kennen kein Erbarmen - Der Italowestern

Self

6.6

2006

Le Juge

Roger Marino · (2 episodes)

9.0

2005

San Antonio

Le ministre de l'intérieur / The Minister

3.5

2004

Antigone

Créon

6.5

2003

Scandalous Crimes

Judge Bocchi

3.5

1999

Venus Beauty Institute

L'aviateur

5.8

1999

Vivement dimanche

Self · (10 episodes)

3.0

1998

The Wax Mask

Boris Volkoff

5.7

1997

Les Miserables

Le maître de cérémonie

6.7

1995

L'Affaire

Paul Haslans

3.0

1994

Stranger in the House

Narrator (voice)

6.5

1992

Stars 90

Self · (1 episode)

6.2

1990

Le Gorille

Joseph Beaucis · (13 episodes)

7.0

1990

Children of Chaos

Robert

5.4

1989

La croisade des enfants

Philippe-Auguste

0.0

1988

Téléthon

Self · (1 episode)

5.0

1987

Sacrée soirée

Self · (3 episodes)

6.5

1987

Nulle part ailleurs

Self · (1 episode)

5.6

1987

Levy & Goliath

Goliath customer (uncredited)

5.1

1987

A Man and a Woman: 20 Years Later

Robert Hossein

5.8

1986

Le Caviar rouge

Alex

0.0

1986

Surprise Party

André Auerbach

5.0

1983

The Big Pardon

Manuel Carreras

6.2

1982

Champs-Elysées

Self · (3 episodes)

6.3

1982

The Professional

Commissaire Rosen

7.2

1981

Bolero

Simon Meyer / Robert Prat

7.0

1981

Démons de midi

Metteur en scène de théâtre

0.0

1979

The Phoney

Kaminsky

4.2

1975

Apostrophes

Self · (1 episode)

8.5

1975

Spécial cinéma

Self · (2 episodes)

0.0

1974

The Protector

Arnaud

3.5

1974

Le tour d'écrou

Peter Quint

7.0

1974

Prêtres interdits

Jean Rastaud

4.5

1973

A Police Officer Without Importance

Pierre Fresse

0.0

1973

Don Juan or If Don Juan Were a Woman

Louis Prévost

Ralph

7.0

1971

The Lion's Share

Maurice Ménard

4.0

1971

Judge Roy Bean

Black Bird

6.0

1971

Samedi soir

Self · (2 episodes)

6.0

1971

Falling Point

Le Caïd

5.8

1970

Versatile Lovers

Serge Belaïeff

3.0

1970

Time of the Wolves

Dillinger

5.4

1970

The Conspirators

Leonida Montanari

7.6

1969

Desert Assault

Capitaine Curd Heinz (Rudi en Français)

4.7

1969

Crime Thief

Tian

5.2

1969

The Scarlet Lady

Julien

5.7

1969

Misdeal

Martin von Klaus

3.0

1969

Life Love Death

Man in the movie

5.3

1969

Cemetery Without Crosses

Manuel

6.4

1969

The Battle of El Alamein

Erwin Rommel

5.3

1969

Tender Moment

Enrico Fontana

5.8

1968

OSS 117 Murder for Sale

Dr. Saadi

5.7

1968

Angelique and the Sultan

Joffrey de Peyrac "Le Rescator"

6.4

1968

A Little Virtuous

Louis Brady

6.1

1968

Lamiel

Roger Valber

4.8

1967

The Man Who Betrayed the Mafia

Maître Bianchini

3.2

1967

I Killed Rasputin

Serge Sukhotin

4.4

1967

La Musica

Him

4.5

1967

Untamable Angelique

Joffrey de Peyrac, 'Le Rescator'

6.5

1967

Brigade Anti Gangs

Chief Commissioner Le Goff

6.6

1966

Long March

Carnot

0.0

1966

The Other Truth

Pierre Montaud, the Advocate

5.0

1966

Angelique and the King

Jeoffrey de Peyrac

6.5

1966

Mademoiselle de Maupin

Captain Alcibiade

6.0

1966

God's Thunder

Marcel

6.4

1965

Marco the Magnificent

Prince Nayam

5.3

1965

Le commissaire mène l’enquête

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

0.0

1965

The Dirty Game

Dupont

5.8

1965

The Vampire of Dusseldorf

Peter Kuerten

5.6

1965

Angelique

Jeoffrey de Peyrac

6.7

1964

Marked Eyes

Franz

5.8

1964

Daniel Boisset

6.8

1963

Of Flesh and Blood

Samuel

0.0

1963

Vice and Virtue

SS Oberst Erik Schörndorf

5.4

1963

Enough Rope

Inspektor Corby

5.6

1963

Love on a Pillow

Renaud Sarti

5.8

1962

Paris Pick-Up

Robert Herbin

6.0

1962

Hitch-Hike

Edouard, le fou

5.5

1962

Madame

Le sergent François-Joseph Lefebvre

5.6

1961

The Game of Truth

L'inspecteur de police

5.9

1961

The Taste of Violence

Perez

7.1

1961

The Menace

Savary

5.5

1961

The Wretches

Jess Rooland

6.2

1960

Take Me As I Am

Ed Dawson

6.0

1960

The Verdict

Georges Lagrange

0.0

1959

Double Agents

Lui

5.4

1959

Stars Meet in Moscow

0.0

1959

Riff Raff Girls

Marcel Point-Bleu

5.8

1959

The Road to Shame

Pierre Rossi

6.0

1959

Blonde in a White Car

Pierre Menda

6.6

1959

Provisional Liberty

Jean-Paul Viberty / Jean Rungis

4.0

1958

Young Girls Beware

Raven

5.3

1957

No Sun in Venice

Sforzi

5.1

1957

Crime and Punishment

René Brunel

7.0

1956

Forgive Our Trespasses

(uncredited)

5.0

1956

Cinépanorama

Self · (4 episodes)

8.0

1956

The Wicked Go to Hell

Fred

6.2

1955

Rififi

Rémi Grutter

7.8

1955

Série noire

5.0

1955

Quai des blondes

Chemise Rose

5.3

1954

Reflets de Cannes

Self · (2 episodes)

2.0

1954

Maya

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

5.6

1949

In the Eyes of Memory

A student from the Simon course

6.6

1948

Sextette

0.0

1948

The Devil Who Limped

Guest in white (uncredited)

6.4

1948