Harold French

Harold French was an English actor, film director, and screenwriter born on 23 April 1897 in London, England, who lived to the age of 100, dying on 19 October 1997. He received his early training at the Italia Conti School and made his acting debut at age 12 in a production of The Winter's Tale.

French's acting career spanned primarily from 1912 to 1936, during which time he appeared on Broadway between 1921 and 1925. His New York stage credits included the revue By the Way and the play The Blue Lagoon. Though his work as an actor did not attract the same level of recognition he would later achieve in other capacities, it formed the foundation of a career that extended across multiple disciplines in the entertainment industry.

In the late 1930s, French transitioned into screenwriting, contributing to three of the four films produced by Criterion Film Productions, the company founded by Marcel Hellman and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. His screenwriting credits from this period include Accused and Crime Over London, both from 1936, and Jump for Glory from 1937. That same year he moved into film direction, frequently collaborating with Hellman as his producer. The period from 1940 to 1955 brought him considerable commercial success as a director, though it was marked by personal tragedy when his wife Phyllis was killed in a Luftwaffe bombing raid in 1941.

French continued working in theatre as well, directing the West End production Out of Bounds, starring Michael Redgrave, in 1962. After 1955 he undertook some television work, though his career in both directing and acting appears to have concluded around 1963. In May 1970 he was the subject of the television programme This Is Your Life, on which he was surprised by host Eamonn Andrews.