Jean Claudio

Biography

Jean Claudio, born Claude Daniel Robert Martin (Paris, 1927 - 1992), was a French actor whose career spanned from the late 1930s to the early 1970s. He first appeared on screen as a child, at a time when European cinema often cast young performers in substantial roles, and he went on to work for decades, with an especially visible international career in the United States.

He made his film debut at ten and at eleven played Mathieu Sorgue in Christian-Jaque's Boys' School. Around the same period he entered the Paris Conservatory, where at fourteen he was cast as Chérubin in a stage production of The Marriage of Figaro. As an adult he built a wide-ranging career in films such as Moulin Rouge (1952), Elena and Her Men (1956) and Darling (1965), moving between historical drama, comedy and thrillers. Beyond acting, he also published a book of poems, Les faux joies (1950), and several novels.

He is remembered mainly for the length of his career, which stretched from childhood into maturity, and for the variety of genres he worked in. He died in 1992.

Key films

• Boys' School (1938): as Mathieu Sorgue, one of his early roles, played while still a child.
• The Phantom Carriage (1939): as a child, in a Swedish adaptation of Selma Lagerlöf's novel.
• Elena and Her Men (1956): a historical comedy in which he plays Lionel Villaret opposite Ingrid Bergman.
• Darling (1965): as Raoul Maxim, in John Schlesinger's Hollywood drama.