Grégoire Aslan

Grégoire Aslan
in Cet homme est dangereux (1953)
Born	Krikor Aslanian (1908-03-28)28 March 1908 Switzerland
Died	Cornwall, England, UK
Resting place	Neuilly-sur-Seine community cemetery
Other names	Coco Aslan
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1935-1982
Spouse(s)	Denise Noël (1948-1955) (divorced)

Grégoire Aslan (Coco) (28 March 1908 – 8 January 1982) was an ethnic Armenian actor and musician.

Early life

Born Krikor Aslanian in Switzerland or in Constantinople, according to different sources, Aslan made his professional début at 18 as a vocalist, trumpeter and drummer with the Paris dance band of Ray Ventura et ses Collegiens, then launched an acting career under the name of Coco Aslan. He also performed with the famed Django Reinhardt. From 1948 to 1955 he was married to French theatre actress Denise Noel.

Career

His first film appearance was uncredited in Marc Didier's 1935 Le Bille de mille. His first credited appearance was in Feux de joie (1939), along with conductor Ventura. During World War II he toured South America with actor Louis Jouvet and eventually started his own theatre troupe. He became an indispensable feature in many British and American films, usually playing foreigners – Russians, Frenchmen, Italians, Germans, Albanians and Middle Easterners – with equal finesse.

Aslan's more prominent screen appearances include gangster boss Duca in Joe MacBeth (1955), King of Kings (1961) as Herod, and Cleopatra (1963) as Porthinos. In 1961, in The Devil at 4 O'Clock, alongside Frank Sinatra and Spencer Tracy, he portrayed Marcel, a criminal who finds repentance by giving his life to save children from being killed by a volcanic eruption on a South Sea island. In Paris When It Sizzles (1964), he played a police chief. He played another police chief in The Return of the Pink Panther (1975). He appeared in over 110 film and TV roles. He also appeared on the French stage in productions from 1946 to 1981.

Death

Aslan died of a heart attack in Cornwall, England.

Selected filmography

• Sleeping Car to Trieste (1948)
• Wicked City (aka Hans le marin, 1949)
• Last Holiday (1950)
• Cairo Road (1950)
• Cage of Gold (1950)
• The Adventurers (1951)
• The Red Inn (1951)
• No Vacation for Mr. Mayor (1951)
• Le Chevalier de la nuit (1953)
• Cet homme est dangereux (1953)
• La soupe à la grimace (1954)
• Oasis (1955)
• Joe MacBeth (1955)
• Mr. Arkadin (1955)
• fr (1956)
• He Who Must Die (1957)
• Les Fanatiques (1957)
• Windom's Way (1957)
• The Snorkel (1958)
• Sea Fury (1958)
• The Roots of Heaven (1958)
• Our Man in Havana (1959)
• The Criminal (1960)
• The Three Worlds of Gulliver (1960)
• King of Kings (1961)
• The Invasion Quartet (1961)
• The Devil at 4 O'Clock (1961)
• The Happy Thieves (1961)
• Cleopatra (1963)
• Une ravissante idiote (1964)
• Paris When It Sizzles (1964)
• The Gorillas (1964)
• Crooks in Cloisters (1964)
• The High Bright Sun (1964)
• The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1964) as the Albanian Ambassador
• Marco the Magnificent (1965)
• Moment to Moment (1965)
• A Man Could Get Killed (1966)
• Our Man in Marrakesh (1966)
• Lost Command (1966)
• The 25th Hour (1967)
• Tiffany Memorandum (1967)
• A Flea in Her Ear (1968)
• Marry Me! Marry Me! (1969)
• You Can't Win 'Em All (1970)
• The Pebbles of Etratat (1972)
• Die rote Kapelle (1972, TV miniseries)
• de (1973)
• The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973)
• QB VII (1974, TV miniseries)
• The Girl from Petrovka (1974)
• The Return of the Pink Panther (1975)
• Bloedverwanten (1977)
• Gloria (1977)
• Meetings with Remarkable Men (1979)

External links

• Gregoire Aslan at the Internet Movie Database
• Grégoire Aslan at Find a Grave