Louis Jourdan

And here's his very memorable appearance on What's My Line.

Sporting a boner in some shots during the "Gigi" number. His member is about to bust through those grey slacks.

He was in my favorite Columbo episode, and the film "The Year of the Comet" which deserves a DVD release. Not to mention "Swamp Thing".

He was male eye candy in his youth.

He was brought to Hollywood by David O. Selznick along with Alida Valli to star in Hitchcock's The Paradine Case. I think he wanted to turn Valli into new Garbo and Jourdan into new Charles Boyer. The movie turned out to be a piece of crap and Valli returned to Europe shortly after that while Jourdan had a relatively good career in the states.

Boner for Louis

Here he is as a panelist on What's My Line.

I guess he's still alive huh? His son committed suicide in the 80's I believe. I also think he has been married to the same woman for most of his adult life. Elizabeth Taylor said he had bad breath. Could have been the cigarettes.

I love WML. John Daly always goes in close when in private conversation with the guests.

I love "Julie" and I'm angry that it isn't more popular amongst dataloungers. Jourdan was deliciously evil as Day's psycho husband. It's nice to see them both still alive almost 60 years after that movie was made.

I'm sure this hillarious review of it will make you want to see Julie:

"Bad Movies We Love" also had a hilarious review of "Julie"

"Letter From An Unknown Woman" that movie has haunted me for years, I saw it as a teenager and it just stayed with me all these years. Notice Hollywood has very little European stars with an accent. Nor does Hollywood have any good character actors.

"Nor does Hollywood have any good character actors."

There are lots of good character actors (like David Strathairn - one of my all-time faves)

Here's a short video of Louis receiving Legion of Honour medal a couple of years ago with his buddies Sidney Poitier and Kirk Douglas in attendance.

GAY

LOVE him. Always had a gay crush on him.

Taylor stated he had bad breath? Just exactly who did that cow, Mrs. Fortensky, think she was?

The Amazons of Rome staring Louis Jourdan.

Oh, r12, I wish I hadn't looked at that...

R15 I was actually thinking about adding a "if you wanna remember Louis for the way he looked in his prime don't click on this link" warning but I decided against it. Well, here's the warning now. But Louis was 89 or 91 when that video was taken (he was born either in 1921 or 1919) so it's only natural that he looks old as hell.

He was in a BBC adaptation of Count Dracula in the late 70s and it was fantastic. Very true to the original book, Jourdan was handsome as fuck and creepy in a very underplayed way. The only thing letting it down was the SFX of the time - his eyes glowed a very unconvincing red. I don't care how he looks now, I will always be a little bit in love with him. Same with Anthony Quinn, he was a hot mofo.

He was very young looking for a long time.

[quote]Nor does Hollywood have any good character actors.

They have one less since that actor died with a needle in his arm two weeks ago.

ELIZABETH TAYLOR told a friend or two about JOURDAN, while handsome, "his breath could damn near take you out !!" That her strongest recollection about him from when they made THE V.I.P.S back in '63

What was the name of the movie where he was stranded on an island, wore only a sarong and was bare chested. Oh, and Debra Paget sacrificed herself by jumping into a volcano. Anyone remember this?

Bird of Paradise. A remake of the 1932 film starring the equally dishy Joel McCrea.

Leave it to Liz not to recognize the aroma of Escargot de Quimper.

He was the epitome of suave.

Thanks R22

I'm happy R[12] posted that link. It was wonderful watching Jourdan in it. I was wondering how he was managing in his late years. He's been around for quite some time. Actually, he seemed to be doing well for a (approx.) 91 year old man and he's still w/his first wife. Of course, as old as Kirk Douglas is, I shouldn't be surprised Jourdan was still doing well when that video was taken.

Thanks R[12]

Hard to believe Richard Burton or Eddie Fisher had mint fresh breath.

He's great in Madame Bovary.

You love him and route for them to be together but you hate him at the same time, he's such a bastard.

Still - bad breath and all - I would waltz with him any day!

.

I'm frankly surprised to be reminded of all these films he was in and I don't think GIGI and CAN-CAN have even been mentioned yet.

Because GIGI is widely considered to be the last great MGM musical and he sang the title tune (badly IMO), he will always be somewhat of an iconic figure in Hollywood history. Not to mention The Night They Invented Champagne, which is also pretty famous.

His Dracula was sacary as hell and it told the real Stoker story.

It's happening to all of us, every minute of every day, R15!

Another movie of his that hasn't been mentioned yet is Three Coins in the Fountain. This movie was 20th Century Fox' response to the success of Roman Holiday and it's very corny but it's famous for it's glorious technicolor cinematography, beautiful shots of Rome and the legendary oscar-winning title song.

The song was sung by Frank Sinatra in the movie but I think Doris Day's version is far superior. Her version used to be on youtube but apparently it's been deleted.

Ah, here is Doris Day singing Three Coins in the Fountain (I found it on some other site).

Louis Jourdan left the pre-Broadway tryout of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever in humiliation when he was blown off the stage by newcomer and costar Barbara Harris.

Don't really care for him but his Dracula is GREAT!

Jourdan was much more in the tradition of the romanticized Hollywood Charles Boyer image of a Frenchman that he couldn't very easily transition into 1960s films (American or French New Wave), that glorified Yves Montand, Jean Paul Belmondo and so many others.

Ah! I see I arrived to late to be the first poster to mention his roles in Can Can, Three Coins in the Fountain & Gigi...

I also wrote on the 2014 Death Thread that this will be Monsieur Jourdan's last year on Planet Earth.

R35 And I've heard that he was really annoyed by method acting James Dean who appeared in Broadway play "The Immoralist" along with Jourdan and Geraldine Page (that was before Dean became a movie star). Page and Dean became besties while Jourdan couldn't really get along with them.

Here's a photo of Jourdan with Dean in the play (I guess this still nicely reflects their real life relationship).

Where do I fit in, bitches?

"And I've heard that he was really annoyed by method acting James Dean who appeared in Broadway play "The Immoralist" along with Jourdan and Geraldine Page (that was before Dean became a movie star). Page and Dean became besties while Jourdan couldn't really get along with them."

Rock Hudson also really hated James Dean

R40 No room for sleazy homophobic closet cases in this thread, monsieur!

[quote]Rock Hudson also really hated James Dean.

I think that's perfectly understandable. Hudson and Jourdan were both old school actors as opposed to method actor Dean. Plus Dean was younger, had a quirky persona and really knew how to steal a scene so they both probably felt really threatened by him.

A lot of Dean's co-stars didn't like him, especially the older veterans. He was undisciplined, uncooperative, ill-mannered, and, according to Elia Kazan, lacked technique, which only added to the other actors' resentments. Imagine being a classically trained actor having to share the stage with a rogue amateur from the Marlon Brando School of mumbling, grunting, and scratching your balls.

Louis Jourdan, however, trained at École Dramatique and hob-knobbed with the Hollywood croquet set. This Dean person was alien to him.

*hobnobbed (I had to look that one up.)

Re: method acting, there's the old story of Dustin Hoffman staying awake the night before filming a scene for Marathon Man so he would look authentically tired and Laurence Olivier suggested to him "have you tried acting my dear boy?"

R44: YET...everyone on the planet knows who James Dean is, and his 3 films & his performances are almost universally acclaimed.

Louis Jourdan enjoys a thread with 47 posts on a gay-themed website.

We all know who Anna Nicole Smith was too.

"YET...everyone on the planet knows who James Dean is, and his 3 films & his performances are almost universally acclaimed"

Part of that is because he died young and became a mythical figure.

R49: Yeah, nearly 60 years ago. And his legend lives on.

Louis Jourdan is still alive & no one's heard from the bitch in probably 30 yrs.

How old are you, R47? I'm asking because most people who obsess tirelessly over Dean are under 20 (it's mostly the same group of people who adore Marilyn Monroe's philosophical quotes and have a giant poster of Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's hanging in their room).

I think we've all gone through our "Jimmy Dean phase" in our high school but I think most of us quickly realized that his entire image is overblown and that his acting isn't that special at all. He wasn't a very versatile actor and if he hadn't died that young movie audiences would quickly grow tired of him and his mumbling performances.

James Dean was a terrible actor. There, I've said it.

No, he wasn't, R52. Say it all you like. That won't make it so.

Elia Kazan, despite his misgivings about Dean's lack of technique, still wanted him for "East of Eden" because he recognized Dean's raw talent and Dean's lack of emotional inhibition. With that said, Dean was a pain-in-the-ass to work with and didn't know the meaning of "collaboration." He was always going off doing what he thought his character [italic]should[/italic] be doing at that moment, while the other actors were trying hard to stick with the script.

At least he never had to do "Murder She Wrote".

JAMES DEAN was a mumbler.

[quote]I love "Julie" and I'm angry that it isn't more popular amongst dataloungers. Jourdan was deliciously evil as Day's psycho husband. It's nice to see them both still alive almost 60 years after that movie was made.

I love this movie too, it's one of my guilty pleasures. I love the scene where Louis and Doris are in bed and she confronts him about her ex-husband.

[quote]How old are you, [R47]? I'm asking because most people who obsess tirelessly over Dean are under 20 (it's mostly the same group of people who adore Marilyn Monroe's philosophical quotes and have a giant poster of Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's hanging in their room).

Yes, yes, yes!

Notoriety means nothing.

I watched The Swan a couple of days ago and he was really hot in that movie. The movie itself was also surprisingly entertaining and had some funny scenes. But of course that cow Grace Kelly chose creepy looking Alec Guiness over dreamy Jourdan in the end.

Anyone else hear he was a crossdresser?

Laurence Olivier seemed to have little patience for "method acting" and those who followed that technique.

According things one has read Marilyn Monroe drove Larry Olivier up the wall when making "the Prince and the Showgirl" with her method acting.

Louis Jourdan yet has a spot on the Hollywood Walk of fame. Not to bad for someone who is "unknown" to Americans.

Louis Jourdan was the first movie star I saw when I first moved to L.A., early 90's. He was in the Ralphs on Doheny & Beverly Drive with his wife.

R63 What did he look like back then? Was he still doable in his early 70's?

And wasn't he a Bond villain in one of the Roger Moore movies? Is that one worth checking out or is it overly cartoony like other Moore's Bonds?

Don't know about "back then" but here is LJ as of 2013

I don't know if he still does it, but a few years ago he would respond to peoples posts about him on the IMDB message boards.

Very gracious and grateful to his fans.

R66 I remember that and I thought it was hillarious how some people actually thought that was Louis posting (including you, I guess). C'mon, do you seriously believe a 90-year old actor hangs on IMDB reading threads about him and answering fan questions? If I remember correctly that fake Louis claimed he's living in the South of France while it's well known that Jourdan has been living in the US for the last 70 years. Those discussions had as much credibility as a "Louis Jourdan here, any questions?" DL thread would have.

He really was gorgeous in Gigi.

This thread ruined Louis for me a bit - now I can't think of him without imagining the foul smell coming from his mouth. But Liz Taylor, who's made these claims, also looked to me like a person who has a sewer breath (from all the booze and cigarettes).

[quote]I thought it was hillarious how some people actually thought that was Louis posting (including you, I guess). C'mon, do you seriously believe a 90-year old actor hangs on IMDB reading threads about him and answering fan questions?

That's like DL's infamous D@vida R0chelle who got caught posting as Kirstie Allie on another forum.

R64 Octopussy, while not as good as some of Connery's better Bonds, is not as outlandish as Moore's Moonraker or A view to a kill.

Louis Jordan made a very menacing and charming villain.

^Jourdan

He's far too good looking to have been a gay.

I was calling him lew-is

r73 Just the opposite darling. He's far too good looking not to be gay.

r75

Evidently you've never been to a gay bar.

r76 Evidently you've never been to a straight bar.

no

I never thought this guy was a good actor, and his accent makes me cringe. And I'm French.

Belle homme. TBM? Bon nikkeur?

Interesting fact: HE'S BEEN DEAD SINCE 2015.

So? Dorothy Kilgallen has been dead a lot longer and gets more action here.

Ock. Tuh. Pusseh. Ock. Tuh. Pusseh. Ock. Tuh Pusseh.