Fernand Gravet Lives Down Advance Publicity

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 147, 17 March 1939, Page 14

Fernand Gravet Lives Down Advance Publicity

A LL foreign film stars who go to Hollywood—and most of them try it sooner or later —do so under a handicap that varies in direct proportion to the amount of advance publicity they receive. And it is doutful if any other one of them ever had to face as large an “Is that so?” as that which greeted Fernand Gravet a year and a half ago.

Gravet, according to the “press” that preceded him from Paris, was a Continental idol, the wealthiest actor in Europe. He resembled King George VI. He collected lead soldiers and fought battles with them all over the floor of his home. The colour of his eyes changed with his moods, and his eyebrows could do everything except dance. His French, German and English were flawless, and he had insisted, when he signed his contract, on being allowed to smoke on the set and to design his own uniforms. The Franco-Belgian player, when he set his highly-polished shoes on Californian territory, found himself treading a glacier. When he reached Hollywood, he no longer resembled the King. He did collect little tin soldiers, and he still does. The collection is one of the mosthighly valued in the world. If he was the wealthiest actor in the world, he made no display of it. No one found anything wrong with his English, or with his eyes. The film folk, in fact, found him to be a rather shy man, with an engaging smile, an eager and apt worker, “charming” in the opinion of women, “regular” among men, bashful by all accounts.