Harold French

Harold French
Born	(1897-04-23)23 April 1897 London, England, UK
Died	London, England, UK
Occupation	Actor Film director
Years active	1920–1936 (actor) 1937–1963 (director)
Spouse(s)	Phyllis (? – 1941)
Awards	Locarno International Film Festival Most Entertaining Film 1949 Adam and Evelyne

Harold French (23 April 1897 in London – 19 October 1997) was an English film director, screenwriter and actor.

As an actor, most of his roles occurred between 1912 and 1936, not gaining as much attention as later he would as a director.

He worked as a screenwriter on three of the four films produced by Marcel Hellman's and Douglas Fairbanks Jr.'s production company Criterion Film Productions in the late 1930s, before switching to film direction in 1937, often with Marcel Hellman as producer. From 1940 to 1955, he had several box-office successes as director. This successful period was clouded by the 1941 death of his wife Phyllis in a Luftwaffe bombing raid.

Although he did some TV work after 1955, he appears to have retired from directing and acting after 1963. He died in 1997 at the age of 100.

Selected filmography

Director

• Dead Men are Dangerous (1939)
• The House of the Arrow (1940)
• The Day Will Dawn (1940)
• Secret Mission (1942)
• Unpublished Story (1942)
• Talk About Jacqueline (1942)
• Dear Octopus (1943)
• English Without Tears (1944)
• Quartet (1948) with Ken Annakin, Arthur Crabtree and Ralph Smart
• Adam and Evelyne (1949)
• Trio (1950) with Ken Annakin and Pat Jackson
• Encore (1951) with Anthony Pelissier
• The Man Who Watched the Trains Go By (1952)
• Isn't Life Wonderful! (1953)
• Rob Roy, the Highland Rogue (1953)
• Forbidden Cargo (1954)
• The Man Who Loved Redheads (1955)

Actor

• Sister Brown (1921)
• Jealousy (1931)
• The Diplomatic Lover (1934)
• Faces (1934)
• Two on a Doorstep (1936)

Screenwriter

• Accused (1936)
• Crime Over London (1936)
• Jump for Glory (1937)

External links

• Harold French at the Internet Movie Database