Guy Kerner

Guy Kerner — Biography

Guy Kerner was a French stage and film actor who became a familiar face in judges, doctors, prosecutors and other figures of authority on French cinema and television. He also worked as a theatre director. He is best remembered for playing Des Essarts in the 1960s series Thierry la Fronde and for his parts in the historical television adaptations of the 1970s. His career ran from 1952 until his death in 1984, and in 1984 he appeared in Les Ripoux.

On stage he appeared at the Grand-Guignol in 1953 in Frédéric Dard's Du plomb pour ces demoiselles, and later worked with directors such as Robert Hossein and Georges Vitaly. In cinema he played Henri I, Duke of Guise, in La Reine Margot (1954), the painter in Les Salauds vont en enfer (1955), the judge in Thérèse Étienne (1958) and the doctor in José Giovanni's Dernier domicile connu (1970). He was also in Coplan prend des risques (1964) and La Dérobade (1979).

Television kept him busier still. He appeared in Les Cinq Dernières Minutes, La caméra explore le temps, Quentin Durward (as Tristan l'Hermite), Les Mohicans de Paris (as Jackal), Le Père Goriot, Le Cousin Pons and Gaston Phébus, and in the TV theatre programme Au théâtre ce soir, including Ninotchka. Born in Levallois-Perret in 1922, he died in Rambouillet in 1984 and is buried at the cemetery of Condé-sur-Vesgre.