René Dary

René Dary (19 July 1905 – 6 October 1974) was a French film actor. Dary began his career as a child actor. Young Clément Mary, as was his original name, was born 18 July 1905 in Paris 6th arrondissement. He got his chance in the Spring of 1910 when he was only five. His father Abélard Mary had put in his head to go and promote himself and his two young kids as extras at the Gaumont studio. Mary, who had been an actor, had become a rundown clown in bars because of his gambling and kept things going with some furniture trade. He had set his hopes for his kids, and gambled well this time, as they were all hired for a peplum, Les Derniers Jours de Babylone. Young Clément's native playfulness, his histrionic acting making him older than he was, his borrowed street talk, and his ease on the set to charm everyone, from actors to technicians, soon began to attract the attention of producer-director Louis Feuillade. Feuillade tested him and designed a whole series around him, the Bébé series. All in all Mary would play in 74 Bébé comedies between 1910 and 1912, according to Braquet (76 between December 1910 and February 1913, according to Lacassin, while IMDb lists 73 titles), such as Bébé apache, Napoléon, Bébé et les cosaques, Bébé en Maroc etc. Feuillade permitted little Mary to do anything forbidden at home. Often his character would be a spoiled brat, have impossible tantrums and pester all adults around him, but he could also help children and old people in distress, showing his good heart after all. Often his mother would be played by Renée Carl, a leading Gaumont actress in her own. And often the child was placed in adult situations, as millionaire, marriage candidate or underworld 'apache'. For over two years Bébé was the best known child actor worldwide. The extremely good box office made papa Mary wealthy too, but his money hunger caused also the downfall of his son. Abélard bought a small cinema in Ménilmontant and called it Bébé-Cinéma, counting on a franchise by Gaumont to show his son's films. This was the limit for Feuillade, who was already fed up with the pretense of the father's self-promotion as his son's manager and his continuous demands for raises for his son. Besides, Clément was reaching an age where his cuteness as child actor was passing. Already mid-1912 another young kid had been picked up in Belleville, near the studios, and had started as supporting actor to Clément in the film Bébé adopte un petit frère, but replaced him completely in March 1913 (February 1913, according to Francis Lacassin) under the character name of Bout-de-Zan (a name he already wore as Bébé's co-actor). Abélard went to court against Gaumont. The court ruled that the breach of contract was just, but also that Mary was allowed to continue acting as Bébé at Pathé's subsidiary Eclectic Films, and he did so until 1916. Yet, it was no competition for Gaumont's Bout-de-Zan. As Abel mentions, Bout-de-Zan was more plebeian while Bébé was 'au fond' bourgeois as type. Still, in the end Poyen did some 50 films for Gaumont, less than Mary.

Known For: Acting

Born: Paris, France, 1905-07-18

Died: 1974-10-07

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1910	Bébé's Masterpieces	Bébé	45
2	1910	La Trouvaille de Bébé		0
3	1910	Bébé apache	Bébé	0
4	1910	Baby Fisherman	Bébé	0
5	1911	Bébé nègre	Bébé	0
6	1911	Bébé sur la Canebière	Bébé	100
7	1911	Bébé a le béguin	Bébé	0
8	1911	Bébé Runs After His Watch	Bébé	0
9	1911	Bébé Runs After His Watch		0
10	1911	Bébé veut imiter Saint-Martin		0
11	1911	Bébé roi de Rome	Bébé	0
12	1911	Bébé Corrects His Father	Baby	0
13	1912	Bébé soigné son père	Bébé	0
14	1912	Jimmy Pulls The Trigger	Bébé	47
15	1912	Bébé, victime d'une erreur judiciaire	Bébé	0
16	1912	Bébé veut payer ses dettes	Bébé	0
17	1912	Bébé juge	Bébé	0
18	1912	Bébé n’aime pas sa concierge	Bébé	0
19	1912	Le Suicide de Bébé	Bébé	0
20	1912	Napoléon, Bébé, and the Cossacks	Bébé	0
21	1912	Bébé fait du spiritisme	Bébé	0
22	1912	Tom Thumb	Le petit Poucet	0
23	1913	Bébé et Jeanne d'Arc	Bébé	0
24	1934	Sidonie Panache		100
25	1936	Hélène	Marcel	55
26	1937	À nous deux, madame la vie	Paul's lawyer (uncredited)	90
27	1938	The Postmaster's Daughter	Captain	0
28	1938	S.O.S. Sahara		0
29	1938	Un fichu métier	Jean-Paul	0
30	1938	The Rebel	Pimaï	0
31	1939	Nord-Atlantique	Barnes, second in command	0
32	1939	L'Esprit de Sidi-Brahim	Jean Varin	0
33	1940	Le café du port		0
34	1940	Moulin Rouge	Lequérec	50
35	1941	After the Storm	René Sabin	50
36	1942	Forte tête	René Rocher	0
37	1942	Mélodie pour toi		0
38	1942	Eight Men in a Castle	Mr. Paladine	0
39	1943	Homeport	René	60
40	1943	À la Belle Frégate	René	0
41	1944	Children of Chaos	Jean Victor	50
42	1945	Bifur 3	Georges	45
43	1946	120, rue de la Gare	Nestor Burma	50
44	1947	The Fugitive	Fred	0
45	1948	Le diamant de cent sous	Clive Morgan	0
46	1948	Cité de l'espérance	Pierre Maufranc	0
47	1949	Five Red Tulips	Pierre Lusanne	48
48	1949	Suzanne and Her Brigands	René Seguin	0
49	1949	The Unknown N° 13	Journalist René Savary	0
50	1950	A Certain Mister	Le Pouce, membre de la bande	37
51	1950	Fugitive from Montreal	Pierre Chambrac	60
52	1954	Touchez Pas au Grisbi	Henri Ducros dit Riton	72
53	1958	Sins of Youth	L'oncle Léon Bertier	0
54	1959	Tonight We Kill	Franz	10
55	1960	The Delinquents	Le Goff	0
56	1960	The Loves of Hercules	Il generale	34
57	1961	L'Exécution	Lavaur	0
58	1961	Daniella by Night	Lanzac	32
59	1961	Skin and Bones	Director	0
60	1961	Napoléon II, the Eagle	Educator of the Duke	65
61	1962	Jusqu'à plus soif	Bardin	20
62	1963	Règlements de compte		20
63	1965	Operation Diplomatic Passport	Head of the D.S.T.	0
64	1965	A Trap for Cinderella	Doctor Doulin	61
65	1967	Horizon	Father	49
66	1967	Fire of Love	Marois	10
67	1967	Risky Business	le maire	74
68	1969	Goto, Island of Love	Gomor	64

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1959	Discorama	Self	0
2	1963	La Route	Mathieu	0
3	1965	Belphegor, or The Phantom of the Louvre	Commissaire Ménardier	69
4	1978	Encyclopédie audiovisuelle du cinéma	Self (archive footage)	0

René Dary

Film

Television