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Robert Le Vigan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Robert Le Vigan
Le Vigan in 1942
Born
Robert Charles Alexandre Coquillaud

(1900-01-07)7 January 1900
Died12 October 1972(1972-10-12) (aged 72)
OccupationActor
Years active1919–1952

Robert Le Vigan (born Robert Coquillaud, 7 January 1900 – 12 October 1972) was a French actor.

He appeared in more than 60 films between 1931 and 1943 almost exclusively in small or supporting roles. He was, according to film academic Ginette Vincendeau, a "brilliant, extravagant actor" who "specialised in louche, menacing or diabolical characters".[1]

A collaborator with the Nazis during the occupation, who openly expressed fascist attitudes,[2] he vanished while playing Jéricho in Children of Paradise (Les Enfants du Paradis), a film deliberately released in May 1945 shortly after the liberation of Europe; Le Vigan was replaced by Pierre Renoir. He was sentenced to forced labour for 10 years in 1946. Released on parole after three years working in a camp, Le Vigan absconded to Spain, and then Argentina, dying there in poverty on 12 October 1972 in the city of Tandil.[1]

Selected filmography

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References

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  1. ^ a b Ginette Vincendeau (ed) Encyclopedia of European Cinema, London: Casell/BFI, 1995, p.262
  2. ^ Rémi Fournier Lanzoni French Cinema: From Its Beginnings to the Present, New York and London: Continuum, 2002, p.139. According to Fournier Lanzoni, Le Vigan found exile in Argentina.
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