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Charles Boyer: The French Lover
For generations of film and theatre audiences, Charles Boyer was the archetypal Frenchman—cultured, courteous, seductive, yet never quite at home in a culture not his own. Even his murmuring baritone voice echoed that loss, giving him the very essence of romance. While one might have expected that the real-life Boyer was a playboy and serial seducer, in reality, he was intensely private, thoughtful, and fidelitous in love – and very professionally astute.
The Great Lover is the first biography of Boyer to exist in English in almost forty years. In an insightful analysis of Boyer's choice of roles during and after World War II, author John Baxter reveals how Boyer, realizing his accent would always mark him as an outsider, both embraced and subverted that identity. Baxter relates how Boyer established himself in the theatre and cinema of France, confidently transitioning from silent film to sound and making a name for himself as a romantic leading man in Hollywood through the early 1940s. During World War II, Boyer put his career on hold to become politically active on behalf of his occupied home country. Upon returning to acting, Baxter shows how Boyer adapted effortlessly to postwar character roles in both Europe and the United States. He entered television in the 1950s as producer and performer, and then remade himself as a comedy performer in the 1960s. A four-time Academy Award nominee, he was honored by the Academy only once for his activities on behalf of France during World War II. Far from clinging to the performances that made him famous, Boyer showed a readiness to break the mold. Yet above all, Baxter argues that Boyer's greatest achievement lies in being the embodiment of exiles everywhere.
The Great Lover is the first biography of Boyer to exist in English in almost forty years. In an insightful analysis of Boyer's choice of roles during and after World War II, author John Baxter reveals how Boyer, realizing his accent would always mark him as an outsider, both embraced and subverted that identity. Baxter relates how Boyer established himself in the theatre and cinema of France, confidently transitioning from silent film to sound and making a name for himself as a romantic leading man in Hollywood through the early 1940s. During World War II, Boyer put his career on hold to become politically active on behalf of his occupied home country. Upon returning to acting, Baxter shows how Boyer adapted effortlessly to postwar character roles in both Europe and the United States. He entered television in the 1950s as producer and performer, and then remade himself as a comedy performer in the 1960s. A four-time Academy Award nominee, he was honored by the Academy only once for his activities on behalf of France during World War II. Far from clinging to the performances that made him famous, Boyer showed a readiness to break the mold. Yet above all, Baxter argues that Boyer's greatest achievement lies in being the embodiment of exiles everywhere.
- GenresBiography
298 pages, Hardcover
Published November 23, 2021
2 people are currently reading
12 people want to read
About the author
John Baxter
225 books123 followersJohn Baxter (born 1939 in Randwick, New South Wales) is an Australian-born writer, journalist, and film-maker.
Baxter has lived in Britain and the United States as well as in his native Sydney, but has made his home in Paris since 1989, where he is married to the film-maker Marie-Dominique Montel. They have one daughter, Louise.
He began writing science fiction in the early 1960s for New Worlds, Science Fantasy and other British magazines. His first novel, though serialised in New Worlds as THE GOD KILLERS, was published as a book in the US by Ace as The Off-Worlders. He was Visiting Professor at Hollins College in Virginia in 1975-1976. He has written a number of short stories and novels in that genre and a book about SF in the movies, as well as editing collections of Australian science fiction.
Baxter has also written a large number of other works dealing with the movies, including biographies of film personalities, including Federico Fellini, Luis Buñuel, Steven Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick, Woody Allen, George Lucas and Robert De Niro. He has written a number of documentaries, including a survey of the life and work of the painter Fernando Botero. He also co-produced, wrote and presented three television series for the Australian Broadcasting Commission, Filmstruck, First Take and The Cutting Room, and was co-editor of the ABC book programme Books And Writing.
In the 1960s, he was a member of the WEA Film Study Group with such notable people as Ian Klava, Frank Moorhouse, Michael Thornhill, John Flaus and Ken Quinnell. From July 1965 to December 1967 the WEA Film Study Group published the cinema journal FILM DIGEST. This journal was edited by John Baxter.
For a number of years in the sixties, he was active in the Sydney Film Festival, and during the 1980s served in a consulting capacity on a number of film-funding bodies, as well as writing film criticism for The Australian and other periodicals. Some of his books have been translated into various languages, including Japanese and Chinese.
Since moving to Paris, he has written four books of autobiography, A Pound of Paper: Confessions of a Book Addict, We'll Always Have Paris: Sex and Love in the City of Light, Immoveable feast : a Paris Christmas, and The Most Beautiful Walk in the World : a Pedestrian in Paris.
Since 2007 he has been co-director of the annual Paris Writers Workshop.
Baxter has lived in Britain and the United States as well as in his native Sydney, but has made his home in Paris since 1989, where he is married to the film-maker Marie-Dominique Montel. They have one daughter, Louise.
He began writing science fiction in the early 1960s for New Worlds, Science Fantasy and other British magazines. His first novel, though serialised in New Worlds as THE GOD KILLERS, was published as a book in the US by Ace as The Off-Worlders. He was Visiting Professor at Hollins College in Virginia in 1975-1976. He has written a number of short stories and novels in that genre and a book about SF in the movies, as well as editing collections of Australian science fiction.
Baxter has also written a large number of other works dealing with the movies, including biographies of film personalities, including Federico Fellini, Luis Buñuel, Steven Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick, Woody Allen, George Lucas and Robert De Niro. He has written a number of documentaries, including a survey of the life and work of the painter Fernando Botero. He also co-produced, wrote and presented three television series for the Australian Broadcasting Commission, Filmstruck, First Take and The Cutting Room, and was co-editor of the ABC book programme Books And Writing.
In the 1960s, he was a member of the WEA Film Study Group with such notable people as Ian Klava, Frank Moorhouse, Michael Thornhill, John Flaus and Ken Quinnell. From July 1965 to December 1967 the WEA Film Study Group published the cinema journal FILM DIGEST. This journal was edited by John Baxter.
For a number of years in the sixties, he was active in the Sydney Film Festival, and during the 1980s served in a consulting capacity on a number of film-funding bodies, as well as writing film criticism for The Australian and other periodicals. Some of his books have been translated into various languages, including Japanese and Chinese.
Since moving to Paris, he has written four books of autobiography, A Pound of Paper: Confessions of a Book Addict, We'll Always Have Paris: Sex and Love in the City of Light, Immoveable feast : a Paris Christmas, and The Most Beautiful Walk in the World : a Pedestrian in Paris.
Since 2007 he has been co-director of the annual Paris Writers Workshop.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 17, 2022
Charles Boyer: The French Lover by John Baxter offers everything a reader would want out of movie star biography. It's compact, chronological, and concise. It's well-written and thoroughly researched. It offers just the right balance of personal and professional. It never crosses over to sensationalism yet delivers plenty of insights. The reader will come away feeling like they really got to know Charles Boyer as a person and as an actor and will immediately look for movies to watch to extend the experience.
My full review: https://www.outofthepastblog.com/2022...
My full review: https://www.outofthepastblog.com/2022...
October 11, 2022
Lo que me queda claro es que en todas las biografías de diversos actores y actrices del antiguo y dorado Hollywood o libros relacionados, siempre se llega a la conclusión de que Joan Crawford era un "pain in the ass"...
Ahora bien, hablando directamente de este libro Boyer era un actor del que siempre se supo poco. No le gustaba dar entrevistas ni conversar con él público. Lo poco que se sabe de él es lo que está biografía nos entrega. Y al igual que la mayoría de mis estrellas de Hollywood favoritas, siempre son menospreciadas o en el peor de los casos olvidadas por encima de otras que si sobrevivieron al frío y tempestuoso tiempo.
Boyer era un hombre romántico en todo el sentido de la palabra y aunque aquí se deja entrever que era misógino, ja, me lo creo más de otros actores, pero bueno... dejemos eso para otro momento.
Lo que sí es cierto es que este hombre al igual que Fredric March en roles de protagonista romántico (aunque sabemos March fue mucho más polifacético) dejaba a toda actriz con la que trabajaba perpleja por su belleza y aquella voz, y a pesar de ello se mantuvo dentro de lo que sabemos claro está, fiel a su esposa, Pat Patterson hasta el final de su vida. Aunque sí me parece que ambos descuidaron a su hijo, quien murió trágicamente como si de Gatsby se tratara en sus 20s. Y eso creo que fue algo que no terminé de entender del todo. Y aunque se notaba que lo querían, usualmente lo relegaban de sus viajes y aventuras, dejándolo siempre en un segundo plano. A mí humilde opinión él siempre amó más a su esposa que a su hijo.
Y aquel final, una verdadera muerte digna de una de sus propias películas, un digo final para un actor dramático de su talla, quien al darse cuenta que ya no le quedaba nadie en esta vida se unió a los suyos en la otra vida de manera adelantada.
No dejó lastimosamente otro legado más que sus propias actuaciones, y a pesar de ello para muchos sigue siendo un actor desconocido, a pesar de todo lo que entregó en pantalla y en teatro en el mundo, sobre todo en su madre patria Francia y en su segundo y final hogar en Estados Unidos. Y todo el apoyo que dio durante la II Guerra mundial.
Corta y sin pretensiones, una grata biografía
PD. Su capítulo con Hedy Lamarr en Algiers fue el que más curiosidad me causó y mi película suya favorita fue probablemente esa y Love affair.
Ahora bien, hablando directamente de este libro Boyer era un actor del que siempre se supo poco. No le gustaba dar entrevistas ni conversar con él público. Lo poco que se sabe de él es lo que está biografía nos entrega. Y al igual que la mayoría de mis estrellas de Hollywood favoritas, siempre son menospreciadas o en el peor de los casos olvidadas por encima de otras que si sobrevivieron al frío y tempestuoso tiempo.
Boyer era un hombre romántico en todo el sentido de la palabra y aunque aquí se deja entrever que era misógino, ja, me lo creo más de otros actores, pero bueno... dejemos eso para otro momento.
Lo que sí es cierto es que este hombre al igual que Fredric March en roles de protagonista romántico (aunque sabemos March fue mucho más polifacético) dejaba a toda actriz con la que trabajaba perpleja por su belleza y aquella voz, y a pesar de ello se mantuvo dentro de lo que sabemos claro está, fiel a su esposa, Pat Patterson hasta el final de su vida. Aunque sí me parece que ambos descuidaron a su hijo, quien murió trágicamente como si de Gatsby se tratara en sus 20s. Y eso creo que fue algo que no terminé de entender del todo. Y aunque se notaba que lo querían, usualmente lo relegaban de sus viajes y aventuras, dejándolo siempre en un segundo plano. A mí humilde opinión él siempre amó más a su esposa que a su hijo.
Y aquel final, una verdadera muerte digna de una de sus propias películas, un digo final para un actor dramático de su talla, quien al darse cuenta que ya no le quedaba nadie en esta vida se unió a los suyos en la otra vida de manera adelantada.
No dejó lastimosamente otro legado más que sus propias actuaciones, y a pesar de ello para muchos sigue siendo un actor desconocido, a pesar de todo lo que entregó en pantalla y en teatro en el mundo, sobre todo en su madre patria Francia y en su segundo y final hogar en Estados Unidos. Y todo el apoyo que dio durante la II Guerra mundial.
Corta y sin pretensiones, una grata biografía
PD. Su capítulo con Hedy Lamarr en Algiers fue el que más curiosidad me causó y mi película suya favorita fue probablemente esa y Love affair.
April 22, 2023
Poorly researched and at times, sloppily written.
There are too many mistakes...
"It Happened One Night" was in 1934, not 1936.
Billy Wilder did not re-write "Adorable" for Janet Gaynor in 1932; he didn't arrive in Hollywood till 1934, speaking no English. "Adorable" is based on "Ihre Hoheit Befiehlt", a story Wilder had written in Germany some time before.
One of the photos is mis-captioned: that's Irene Dunne with Boyer in "Love Affair", not Jean Arthur.
"Love is a Ball"... the leading lady is Hope Lange, not
Inger Stevens.
Bette Davis, shooting "Jezebel" in 1938, DID have an affair with William Wyler but she DID NOT have a baby by him. Years later, she talked about having had several abortions, but her only biological child was born in 1947 to her husband, William Sherry.
There are several portions of the book which contain unlikely, fanciful stories...
"Among the teenagers who first saw Boyer on TV (in Four-Star Playhouse) was future star
Warren Beatty... the Playhouse programs led Beatty to discover "Love Affair" and he would make his own version of it in 1994."
Where did that story come from? Why would Beatty see Boyer on TV twenty years after "Love Affair" and seek to emulate him? Particularly as old movies were difficult to see in the 1950s, you had to wait until there was a television screening. Isn't it more plausible that Beatty saw "An Affair to Remember" as a twenty-year-old?
Baxter gives us a list of Jean-Pierre Aumont's affairs... including Vivien Leigh.
Who supplied these names? Much has been written over the years about Ms Leigh but the name of M. Aumont has never been mentioned, other than as a co-star on Broadway, but apparently
Mr Baxter knows something nobody else knows.
There are too many mistakes...
"It Happened One Night" was in 1934, not 1936.
Billy Wilder did not re-write "Adorable" for Janet Gaynor in 1932; he didn't arrive in Hollywood till 1934, speaking no English. "Adorable" is based on "Ihre Hoheit Befiehlt", a story Wilder had written in Germany some time before.
One of the photos is mis-captioned: that's Irene Dunne with Boyer in "Love Affair", not Jean Arthur.
"Love is a Ball"... the leading lady is Hope Lange, not
Inger Stevens.
Bette Davis, shooting "Jezebel" in 1938, DID have an affair with William Wyler but she DID NOT have a baby by him. Years later, she talked about having had several abortions, but her only biological child was born in 1947 to her husband, William Sherry.
There are several portions of the book which contain unlikely, fanciful stories...
"Among the teenagers who first saw Boyer on TV (in Four-Star Playhouse) was future star
Warren Beatty... the Playhouse programs led Beatty to discover "Love Affair" and he would make his own version of it in 1994."
Where did that story come from? Why would Beatty see Boyer on TV twenty years after "Love Affair" and seek to emulate him? Particularly as old movies were difficult to see in the 1950s, you had to wait until there was a television screening. Isn't it more plausible that Beatty saw "An Affair to Remember" as a twenty-year-old?
Baxter gives us a list of Jean-Pierre Aumont's affairs... including Vivien Leigh.
Who supplied these names? Much has been written over the years about Ms Leigh but the name of M. Aumont has never been mentioned, other than as a co-star on Broadway, but apparently
Mr Baxter knows something nobody else knows.
February 17, 2022
Excellent book!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews