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Eddie Constantine

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Occupation
  
Name
  
Eddie Constantine

Role
  
Actor


Eddie Constantine mediasunifranceorgmedias16121755713formatp

Full Name
  
Edward Constantinowsky

Born
  
October 29, 1917 (
1917-10-29
)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.

Died
  
February 25, 1993, Wiesbaden, Germany

Spouse
  
Maya Faber-Jansen (m. 1979–1993), Dorothea Gibson (m. 1977–1978)

Children
  
Lemmy Constantine, Barbara Constantine, Tania Constantine, Mia Bella Marie Constanine

Albums
  
Chansons Francaises (20 Succes Originaux)

Movies
  
Alphaville, Beware of a Holy Whore, Poison Ivy, The Long Good Friday, Germany Year 90 Nine Zero

Similar People
  
Bernard Borderie, Francois Deguelt, Jean‑Luc Godard, Edith Piaf, Juliette Greco

Eddie constantine singing french songs 1959


Eddie Constantine (born Edward Constantinowsky; October 29, 1917 – February 25, 1993) was an American actor and singer who spent his career working in Europe.

Contents

Eddie Constantine Eddie Constantine 1917 1993 Find A Grave Memorial

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

Eddie Constantine Eddie Constantine ImgMob

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 70s; his final appearance as the character was in Jean-Luc Godard's Germany Year 90 Nine Zero (1991).

Eddie Constantine Eddie Constantine Img Need

●{Eddie Constantine & Gillian Hills}● ~ ♫♭ ♪ «Spécialisation» ♫♭ ♪ ~ ● .wmv


Biography

Eddie Constantine Eddie Constantine uniFrance Films

Edward Constantinowsky was born in Los Angeles to Jewish immigrant parents, a Russian father and Polish mother. In pursuit of a singing career, he went to Vienna for voice training, but when he returned to America his career didn't take off and he started taking work as a film extra. Having failed to make a career in America, Constantine returned to Europe in the 1950s and started singing and performing in Parisian 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, so that he has songwriting credits on the English versions of some of her most famous songs (especially "Hymne à l'amour"/"Hymn to Love").

Eddie Constantine Eddie Constantine Character Comic Vine

In the 1950s Constantine was a star in France due to 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), Cet homme est dangereux (1953), Ça va barder (1953), Je suis un sentimental (1955), Lemmy pour les dames (1961) and Your Turn, Darling (1963).

Constantine eventually became a French citizen and enjoyed great popularity in several European countries, including France and Germany. When not playing Lemmy Caution, Constantine's character would still typically be a suave-talking, seductive, smooth guy, although he often played this for laughs. He turned his accent and perceived American cockiness to advantage in such roles, and later described his film persona as having been "James Bond before James Bond".

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 TV dramas as well as film. Constantine later claimed he had never taken his acting career seriously, as he considered himself to be a singer by trade, and had been an actor strictly for the money. 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 in the same year, in Godard's experimental film Germany Year 90 Nine Zero.

Personal life

Constantine was married three times, to Helinka Musilova (divorced), with whom he had three children, Dorothea Gibson (1977–78, divorced), and the film producer Maya Faber-Jansen (1979–93, Constantine's death), with whom he had one child. His son, born in 1957 and named after Constantine's famous role, is Lemmy Constantine (entry on French Wikipedia), who is also a singer and actor.

Death

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

References

Eddie Constantine Wikipedia