Queer Places:
Lycée Charlemagne, 14 Rue Charlemagne, 75004 Paris
Cimetière de Montmartre
Paris, City of Paris, Île-de-France, France
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Jacques Charon (February
27, 1920 – October 15, 1975) was a French actor and director.
In 1941 he entered the Comédie-Française where he spent his entire career as an actor and signed about twenty shows. Appointed associate in 1947 and dean in 1972, he also distinguished himself as a director in the boulevard theater.
Son of a department manager at the Louvre Department Stores, he was born in Paris rue des Bons-Enfants, near the Comédie-Française, at his parents' home. He studied at the Lycée Charlemagne. At a very young age, he was already passionate about theatre, going so far as to state that he had learned to read on the posters of the Comédie-Française. When he got good grades at school, his parents allowed his sister to take him to the matinees of the Comédie-Française on Thursdays.
At the age of eighteen, he worked as a knitter, but secretly dreamed of theatre. With the complicity of his sister Geneviève, every Sunday instead of going to Mass, he took drama classes from Julien Bertheau. A month after the beginning of his training he was already hired to play in Forte tête at the Théâtre de l'Étoile. Then he entered the Conservatoire national d'art dramatique in Paris in the class of Mme Dussane. He won a second prize for Comedy in the first year in Le Bavard by Carmontelle and Le Distrait by Regnard in the role of Léandre. In 1941, he stayed at the Chantiers de jeunesse.
During the post-WWII period, the French theatre was dominated by Jean Cocteau's circle, including the stage designer Christian Bérard and the actor Jean Marais; the bisexual Gérard Philipe was everyone's favorite leading man. The foremost members of the Comedic Francaise, such as Jean Weber and Jacques Charon, were familiar faces at gay salons.
Jacques Charon was hired at the Comédie-Française on September 1, 1941 (corypheus), he received the nickname of baby who was never to leave him again. He was a boarder on 1 january 1942, became its 410th member on 1 january 1947 and became its dean on 1 january 1972.
He quickly became interested in directing, while preparing the role of Harlequin in Harlequin poli par l'amour, Gaston Baty, occupied by the staging of Bérénice, entrusted him, in addition to his role, with the staging. He then did that of the Don d'Adèle, performed at the Comédie-Wagram. In 1969, six plays he directed were performed simultaneously in Paris and three others toured in the provinces. Jacques Charon was a bulimic of work. When in 1969, Maurice Escande awarded him the Legion of Honor, he told him: "I will not summarize your career in front of your friends, it would be ridiculous and then, it would force me to stay standing for five hours."
Shortly after publishing his memoirs under the title Moi, un comédien, he died of a heart attack on October 15, 1975 in the 1st arrondissement of Paris at the age of 55 and was buried in the Montmartre cemetery (division 29).
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