Maurice Chevalier

Maurice Auguste Chevalier, born in Paris on 12 September 1888, was a French singer, actor, and entertainer whose Broadway career spanned from 1928 to 1965. He died in Paris on 1 January 1972, from complications of a suicide attempt.

Chevalier was the son of Victor Charles Chevalier, a house painter, and Joséphine Van Den Bossche, a lace-maker of Belgian Flemish descent. His father, an alcoholic, abandoned the family in 1896, leaving his mother to support Maurice and his brothers Charles and Paul alone. After his mother was hospitalized for overwork in 1898, the brothers took on greater responsibilities. Determined from an early age to perform, Chevalier left school at ten with ambitions of becoming an acrobat, but a serious injury ended that pursuit. He worked as a carpenter's apprentice, an electrician, a printer, and a doll painter before taking a job at a mattress factory, where a workplace accident injured his finger and forced him to stop. During his recovery in 1900, he performed his first song, V'la Les Croquants, at a nearby café, though the audience laughed at his pitch. Encouraged by his mother and brother Paul, he continued practicing and eventually secured a part in a local musical, beginning to establish himself as a mimic and singer.

In 1909, Chevalier became the partner of Fréhel, then the most prominent female star in France. Though their relationship ended in 1911 due to her alcoholism and drug addiction, she had secured him a significant early engagement as a mimic and singer at l'Alcazar in Marseille, where French theatre critics received him with acclaim. He later entered a relationship with Mistinguett at the Folies Bergère, where he served as her younger dance partner in a widely publicized romance.

When World War I began, Chevalier was already in active military service. He was wounded by shrapnel in the back during the early weeks of combat and spent two years as a prisoner of war in Germany, during which time he learned English. In 1916, he was released through the intervention of King Alfonso XIII of Spain, acting at the request of Mistinguett's circle. By 1917, he had become a star at le Casino de Paris and began performing for British and American soldiers. That same year he discovered jazz and ragtime, traveled to London, and found success at the Palace Theatre, performing in French.

After the war, Chevalier returned to Paris and created several enduring songs, among them "Valentine" in 1924. He met American composers George Gershwin and Irving Berlin and brought the operetta Dédé to Broadway in 1922. He also appeared in Charlie Chaplin's 1923 drama A Woman of Paris. In 1927, he married Yvonne Vallée, a dancer he had met in 1922. When sound film arrived, Chevalier made his Hollywood debut in 1928, signing with Paramount Pictures and playing his first American role in Innocents of Paris. In 1930, he received Academy Award nominations for Best Actor for his performances in The Love Parade and The Big Pond, the latter of which produced his early American hit songs "Livin' in the Sunlight, Lovin' in the Moonlight" and "A New Kind of Love." He collaborated repeatedly with director Ernst Lubitsch and appeared in Paramount on Parade that same year. His name became so widely recognized that his passport was used as a comic device in the Marx Brothers film Monkey Business in 1931.

Chevalier continued his film work through the early 1930s, starring in The Smiling Lieutenant with Claudette Colbert and Miriam Hopkins in 1931, and One Hour with You and Love Me Tonight, both in 1932, the latter two co-starring Jeanette MacDonald with songs by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. His signature songs across his career included "Louise," "Mimi," and "Thank Heaven for Little Girls," and his trademark stage appearance featured a boater hat and tuxedo.

After more than two decades away from Hollywood, Chevalier returned to film in 1957 with Love in the Afternoon. The following year he starred alongside Leslie Caron and Louis Jourdan in Gigi. In the early 1960s he appeared in eight films, including Can-Can in 1960 and Fanny in 1961. His final contribution to film came in 1970, when he sang the title song for the Disney animated feature The Aristocats.

On Broadway, Chevalier's credits included an appearance in Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic in 1919, as well as starring roles in Maurice Chevalier in an Evening of Songs and Impressions, An Evening with Maurice Chevalier, and Maurice Chevalier at 77, the last of which marked the conclusion of his Broadway presence in 1965. He also worked as a lyricist during his Broadway career.