Remembering Jacques Berthier

Jacques Maurice Berthier was born on February 10, 1916 in Paris, France. As a youth he loved athletics and studied the arts (painting, sculpture and decoration) at the Conservatory of Louis Jouvet. He began his career in films in 1941 appearing in “Destin fabuleux Désirée Clary” and would go on to appear regularly as noblemen and military officers. In the 1950s he took to the stage and appeared in “The Perfect Crime” and toured in “Ami-Ami”. In 1953 he crossed swords on screen with Errol Flynn in “Le vagabond des mers”. He was quite often seen in TV series. When the Italian cinema started to explode toward the end of the decade Jacques decided to pursue his career in Rome. Berthier was relegated to starring roles in B-films and during his career appeared in three Euro-westerns; as Sheriff Wild Bill Danders in “Colorado Charlie” (1965), Jeff Randall in “The Sheriff with the Gold” (1966) and a small role as Kelly Butler in “The White, the Yellow and the Black” (1975). In 1968 he appears in Terence Young’s “The Mayerling”. He also became a voice actor and was the French voice of Raymond Burr for the “Ironsides” TV series. Berthier was also the French voice of such distinguished actors as David Niven, Gregory Peck, Sterling Hayden, Robert Taylor, Stewart Granger and George Sanders. Jacques married Suzanne Besnier in 1939 and they had three sons Michael, Francis and Paul. Suzanne died when she was only 26 and Jacques later married actress Lily Baron [1921- ] and the two remained together until Berthier’s death on April 26, 2008 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. Today we remember Jacques Berthier on what would have been his 95th birthday.