René Navarre
actor, director, producer
- Birth name:
- Victor René Navarre
- Born:
- 1877-07-08, Limoges, Haute-Vienne, France
- Died:
- 1968-02-08, Azay-sur-Cher, Indre-et-Loire, France
- Professions:
- actor, director, producer
Biography
Born under the porcelain skies of Limoges on 8 July 1877, René Navarre traded the quiet hum of Haute-Vienne for the flicker of early film stock. In 1913 he slipped into the silk mask of Fantômas, the first dash of criminal elegance ever projected across a startled Parisian audience; the same year he prowled through L’écrin du rajah, and by 1916 he was decoding peril in Le Document secret. Between takes he directed, reshaping light and shadow to his will. Off-screen he shared his life with two leading women—Elmire Vautier and, later, Nelly Palmer. Nearly a century after his birth, he took his final bow on 8 February 1968 in the riverside hush of Azay-sur-Cher, leaving the projector’s beam forever branded with his name.
