The Biography

Post‑war film enthusiasts will remember the face of Henri Marteau, a fairly prolific supporting actor whose name has since faded somewhat from memory. His early appearances, barely above that of an extra, explain why he is missing from certain credits. He appears for only a few seconds in A Witness in the City by Édouard Molinaro, and in The Big Restaurant with Louis de Funès, where he just as briefly plays the second inspector. In Le Mors aux dents, he plays a minister, then a stranded motorist in Jean L’Hôte’s La Communale, and a trafficker in Une Sale Affaire. His most notable performance is as a French colonist and the father of Catherine Deneuve in Indochine. He was more easily spotted on television, in Les Coquelicots sont revenus and Poil de carotte by Richard Bohringer. He also appeared in numerous episodes of Les Cinq Dernières Minutes with Raymond Souplex, as well as in the later season with Jacques Debary, and in Les Filles du maître de chai. He died in Paris at Hôpital Saint‑Louis at the age of seventy‑two.