Robert, Yves

(June 19, 1920, Saumur, Maine-et-Loire, France - May 10, 2002, Paris, France)

   He started working at age thirteen as an appren­tice pastry cook, messenger, unskilled road worker, and typographer. In 1942, he joined the Grenier-Hussenot theatrical company in Lyon and then attended Jean-Marie Conty's acting class in Paris. While directing several shows in the famous Paris­ian cabaret that he managed from 1948 to 1952, La Rose Rouge, he got his first role in a film (a soccer player in Les Dieux du Dimanche, René Lucot) in 1948. A gifted comedy director since 1953, he never stopped acting and played mostly supporting roles in about seventy films. He probably gave his best acting performance as Patrick Dewaere's father in Claude Sautet's Un Mauvais Fils / UK and USA: A Bad Son in 1980. Autobiography: 1996 Un Homme de Joie: Dialogue avec Jérôme Tonnerre (Flammarion). In 1956, he had married actress Danièle Delorme (b. 1926), with whom he co-founded a production company, Les Films de la Guéville, in 1961. Their first produc­tion, La Guerre des Boutons / USA: War of the Buttons, received the Jean Vigo Prize. In the 1970s and early 1980s, Les Films de la Guéville released in France all the Monthy Python movies.

 Filmography

1951 ◘ Les Bonnes Manières (short)

        ◘ Fernand cherche du Boulot (short)

1954 ◘ Les Hommes ne pensent qu'à ça (also actor)

        ◘ Ni vu, ni connu

        ◘ Signé Arsène Lupin / Il ritorno di Arsenio Lupin / US TV: Signed:Arsene Lupin (also actor; France / Italy)

        ◘ La Famille Fenouillard (also actor)

        ◘ La Guerre des Boutons / USA: War of Buttons (also co-producer)

        ◘ Bébert et l'Omnibus / UK and USA: Bebert and the Train / The Holy Terror (also producer)

        ◘ Les Copains (also producer)

        ◘ Monnaie de Singe / I sette falsari / La viuda soltera / UK: Monkey Money (also co-screenwriter, co-adapter, co-producer; France / Italy)

        ◘ Alexandre le Bienheureux / UK: Very Happy Alexander / USA: Alexander (also original story, co-screenwriter, co-adapter, dialogist, co-producer)

        ◘ Clérambard (also co-screenwriter, co-adapter, dialogist, co-producer)

        ◘ Le Grand Blond avec une Chaussure noire / UK: Follow That Guy with the One Black Shoe / USA: The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe (also co-screenwriter, co-producer, actor)

        ◘ Salut l'Artiste / L'idolo della città / UK: Hail the Artist / USA: The Bit Player (also co-screenwriter, co-producer, actor; France / Italy)

        ◘ Le Retour du grand Blond / USA: The Return of the Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe (also co-screenwriter, actor, co-producer)

        ◘ Un Eléphant ça trompe énormément / UK: Pardon Mon Affaire / USA: An Elephant Can Be Extremely Deceptive (also co-screenwriter, co-producer)

        ◘ Nous irons tous au Paradis / UK: Pardon Mon Affaire, Too! / USA: We Will All Meet in Paradise (also co-screenwriter, co-producer)

1979 ◘ Courage fuyons (also co-screenwriter, co-producer)

1984 ◘ Le Jumeau (also co-screenwriter, co-adapter, co-dialogist, co-producer, uncredited actor)

1986 ◘ Les Petites Magiciennes (short; co-director with Vincent Mercier; also co-screenwriter; France / Switzerland)

1990 ◘ La Gloire de mon Père / UK and USA: My Fa­ther's Glory (also co-screenwriter, co-adapter, co-producer)

        ◘ Le Château de ma Mère / USA: My Mother's Castle (also co-screenwriter, co-adapter, co-producer)

1992 ◘ Le Bal des Casse-Pieds (also co-screenwriter, co-producer)

1994 ◘ Montparnasse-Pondichéry (also co-screenwriter, co-dialogist, co-producer, actor)

 Television Filmography

1986 ◘ L'Eté 36 (also screenwriter, adapter, dialogist)