Fernand Gravey

Biography

Fernand Gravey’s story begins in Brussels, 1904, in the wings of the Théâtre des Galeries, where Alfred Machin’s leading lady, Fernande Dépernay, and her husband, Georges Mertens—both fixtures in Machin’s films—were already rehearsing their next scene. Their newborn, Fernand Mertens, was barely out of the cradle before he toddled in front of the camera: first as the mischievous toddler who helps Saïda swipe Manneken Pis, then, at ten, as little Kef drifting through the tragic clouds of 1914. Years passed, the family name slipped into a Gallic disguise—Garvey—and the boy who once stole statues grew into the velvet-voiced leading man France would celebrate simply as Fernand Gravey.