Pierre Asso

Cinema has not been too good to the actor Pierre Asso. A fistful of fleshy roles: Tamise in Marcel Pagnol's 1936 version of "Topaze", the monk Pablo in Louis Daquin's "Patrie" (1945), the blackmailer in Julien Duvivier's "L'affaire Maurizius (1954), Trintignant's disturbing ringleader in Alain Cavalier's "Le combat dans l'île" (1961) and that's about all. The rest consists of a few minor forgettable supporting roles. Fortunately the actor was more favored in other fields namely, theatre, television and film dubbing (he was notably the French voice of Leslie Howard in "Gone With the Wind"). Aged 16, wishing to work in the theatre, Pierre Asso moved to Paris in the mid 1920s. Although he did not become a big name, he had a successful career there, lasting half a century. He was seen and heard in plays by Pirandello, Kleist, Ibsen, Beckett, Wilde, Claudel, Shakespeare, Molière, Corneille under the supervision of such important stage directors as Antonin Artaud, Jean Vilar, Jean Mercure,