“I’ve always felt a connection with bad-tempered people. Perhaps the same was true with Harry Baur. On the other hand, if you loved the business, you could not not love Harry Baur. His intelligence was vast, sharp. His cultural knowledge was never at fault. He had an admirable dramatic sense. His observations, opinions, and criticisms were always relevant. […] Baur never failed to surprise me. He had unexpected qualities, absolutely original expressions. In Poil de carotte, he rightfully received acclaim for the role of Lepic. He was one of the first to play Simenon’s inspector Maigret on the screen. Baur and his pipe were truly Maigret, as it was for David Golder, as it was for Lepic… He was always Harry Baur but he was also always the character of the story in a surprising way”. This is how Julien Duvivier remembered Harry Baur in 1953, an actor he had directed in seven films. Baur’s gigantic stature emanated an ineffable magnetism even when still, and his face could express friendliness, danger, toughness, guile, or violence with a slight change of the look in his eyes.

Alsatian, born on April 12, 1880 in Paris, Baur quickly rose to fame as a showman on the stages of the Comédie Mondaine, Grand Guignol, Palais-Royal, Théâtre Michel, etc. His film career began in 1908 with Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset. He appeared with Sarah Bernhardt in La Voyante (1923), but he became famous for his roles as Maigret, Jean Valjean, Herod, Beethoven, Volpone, Rasputin, and Taras Bulba. He worked with many directors including Pierre Chenal, Raymond Bernard, Maurice Tourneur, Abel Gance, Christian-Jacque, Marcel L’Herbier, and Jacques de Baroncelli. During Nazi occupation he stayed in France but was accused of being Jewish by “Je suis partout”. Baur fended for himself and went to Germany to shoot a film, but in May of 1942 he was arrested and tortured for four months by the Gestapo. The experience reduced him to a shadow of his former self, and he died on April 8, 1943.

Roberto Chiesi