Henri Monteux


Henri Philippe Moïse Monteux was a French theatre and film actor, and an elder brother of the conductor Pierre Monteux. His family was descended from Sephardic Jews who settled in France.

Life and career

Born at 16 rue de la Grange Batelière, he was the fourth child of Gustave and Clémence Monteux who had moved to Paris from Marseille in 1864. It was a modest household, his father being a shoe-maker and his mother a piano teacher. His younger brother Pierre later recalled as children spending afternoons observing the passers-by in the local square laid the foundations of the future actor's characterisations.
Monteux made his debut at the Théâtre National de l'Odéon on 30 September 1895 as Georges Bréval in La Vie by Adolphe Thalasso, having won the prize for tragedy at the Paris Conservatoire with his performance as Othello the previous July. He played the same part to considerable praise in a production of de Vigny's More de Venise at the same theatre in December that year. He played in the revue at the Folies Bergère in 1903: a most amusing pantomime with dogs "une pantomime extrêmement amusante, jouée par des chiens" The Merian Dogs.
He followed these with leading roles such as Molière in Le Prêcheur converti, the title rôle in Britannicus, Oreste in Andromaque, and Robert Morel in the premiere of Les Irréguliers.
He later became famous at the Théâtre Sarah-Bernhardt and was considered a specialist in the plays of Rostand and went on to make several films and records.
In 1937 Monteux starred in Pas de ça chez nous at the Théâtre de la Renaissance as the President. A reviewer commented that Henri Monteux reminded everyone what a remarkable actor he was, displaying dramatic intensity coupled with fantasy.
At the time of his arrest in Paris he was playing with acclaim the drunken father in Gorky's The Mother.

Films

This includes: