Eddie Constantine

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Eddie Constantine
Constantine in 1972
Born	Israël Constantine (1917-10-29)29 October 1917 Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Died	25 February 1993(1993-02-25) (aged 75) Wiesbaden, Germany
Occupation	Actor Singer
Years active	1936–1993
Spouse(s)	Helene Musil ​ ​ (m. 1942; div. 1976)​ Dorothea Gibson ​ ​ (m. 1977; div. 1977)​ Maya Faber-Jansen ​ ​ (m. 1979)​
Children	4

Eddie Constantine (born Israël Constantine; October 29, 1917 – February 25, 1993) was an American-born French actor and singer who spent most of his career working in Europe.^[1]

He became well known for a series of French B movies in which he played secret agent Lemmy Caution. He may be best remembered for his role in Jean-Luc Godard's philosophical science fiction film Alphaville (1965).

Constantine also appeared in films by Rainer Werner Fassbinder (as himself in Beware of a Holy Whore 1971), Lars von Trier, and Mika Kaurismäki. He continued reprising the role of Lemmy Caution well into his seventies. His final appearance as the character was in Jean-Luc Godard's Germany Year 90 Nine Zero (1991).

Biography[]

Israël Constantine^[2][3] was born in Los Angeles to Jewish immigrant parents, a Russian father and Polish mother; his father was a jeweler. In pursuit of a singing career, he went to Vienna for voice training. However, when he returned to the United States, his career failed to take off, and he started taking work as a film extra.^[4] Having failed to make a career in the United States, Constantine returned to Europe in the early 1950s and started singing and performing in Paris cabarets. He was noticed by Edith Piaf, who cast him in the musical La p'tite Lili. Constantine also helped Piaf with translations for her 1956 album La Vie en Rose/Édith Piaf Sings In English and so he has songwriting credits on the English versions of some of her most famous songs (especially "Hymne à l'amour"/"Hymn to Love").^[5]

Eddie Constantine at the airport in Copenhagen, 1958

In the 1950s Constantine was a star in France because of his role as the hard-boiled detective/secret agent Lemmy Caution (from Peter Cheyney's novels) in a series of French B-pictures, including La môme vert-de-gris (1953), This Man Is Dangerous, Ça va barder (1953), Je suis un sentimental (1955), Lemmy pour les dames (1961) and Your Turn, Darling (1963).

When not playing Lemmy Caution, Constantine would have a character that was still typically be a suave-talking, seductive, smooth guy although he often played that for laughs. He turned his accent and perceived American cockiness to advantage in such roles, and he later described his film persona as having been "James Bond before James Bond".^[6] One of his best remembered later roles was as the visiting Mafia boss Charlie in the British gangster film The Long Good Friday (1980).

One of his most notable roles was in Jean-Luc Godard's Alphaville (1965) in which he reprised (to a more radical end) the role of Lemmy Caution, in a departure from the style of his other films. His box-office appeal in France waned in the mid-1960s. Having remarried to a German television producer, he eventually relocated to Germany, where he worked as a character actor, appearing in German television dramas as well as film. Constantine later claimed that he had never taken his acting career seriously, as he considered himself to be a singer by trade, and that had been an actor strictly for the money.^[6] He nevertheless worked with directors including Godard and Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and his last notable film appearance was in Lars Von Trier's Europa in 1991. He had taken up the part of Lemmy for the last time that year, in Godard's experimental film Germany Year 90 Nine Zero.^[4]

Personal life[]

Eddie Constantine in the 1990s

Constantine was married three times: to Helene Musil (1942-1976, divorced), with whom he had three children; Dorothea Gibson (1977, divorced); and the film producer Maya Faber-Jansen (1979–1993, Constantine's death), with whom he had one child.^[4] His daughter Tanya Constantine, born in 1943, is a photographer. His daughter Barbara Constantine, born in 1955, is a writer. His son Lemmy Constantine, born in 1957, is also a singer and actor. His daughter Mia Constantine, born in 1981, is a theater director.

Death[]

Eddie Constantine died of a heart attack on February 25, 1993, aged 75.

Filmography[]

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Eddie Constantine.

• Eddie Constantine at Uni France (in English)
• Eddie Constantine at IMDb
• Eddie Constantine at AllMovie