Gerard Oury, popular director

PARIS – Gerard Oury, the director who made one of the most popular French films of all time, ‘La Grande Vadrouille’, died on Thursday at the age of 87.

Oury directed a series of extremely successful comedy capers in the 1960s and 1970s, many starring the comic actors Louis de Funes and Bourvil. Released in 1966, ‘La Grande Vadrouille’ – known in English as ‘Don’t Look Now, We’re Being Shot At’ – was about an Allied pilot trying to escape from occupied France during World War II, and also starred the English actor Terry Thomas.The film was seen by 17 million people at the cinema – a French record not overtaken until 32 years later by James Cameron’s ‘Titanic’.Among Oury’s other hits were ‘Le Cerveau’ – ‘The Brain’ – which starred Bourvil, Jean-Paul Belmondo and David Niven, and ‘Les Aventures de Rabbi Jacob’ with De Funes.Born in Paris in 1919, Oury began his career as a theatre actor at the Comedie Francaise.Being Jewish, he fled France for Monaco and Switzerland during World War II.In the 1950s he played French roles in several British films, but gave up acting for directing at the end of the decade.French Prime Minister Dominique paid tribute to Oury as a “marvellous representative of the French spirit, of humour, generosity and tenderness”.His work “is part of the heritage of French families – those films that one can watch over and again with the same delight as on the first day”, Villepin said.- Nampa-AFPReleased in 1966, ‘La Grande Vadrouille’ – known in English as ‘Don’t Look Now, We’re Being Shot At’ – was about an Allied pilot trying to escape from occupied France during World War II, and also starred the English actor Terry Thomas.The film was seen by 17 million people at the cinema – a French record not overtaken until 32 years later by James Cameron’s ‘Titanic’.Among Oury’s other hits were ‘Le Cerveau’ – ‘The Brain’ – which starred Bourvil, Jean-Paul Belmondo and David Niven, and ‘Les Aventures de Rabbi Jacob’ with De Funes.Born in Paris in 1919, Oury began his career as a theatre actor at the Comedie Francaise.Being Jewish, he fled France for Monaco and Switzerland during World War II.In the 1950s he played French roles in several British films, but gave up acting for directing at the end of the decade.French Prime Minister Dominique paid tribute to Oury as a “marvellous representative of the French spirit, of humour, generosity and tenderness”.His work “is part of the heritage of French families – those films that one can watch over and again with the same delight as on the first day”, Villepin said.- Nampa-AFP