Christian Marquand

Christian Marquand (15 March 1927 – 22 November 2000) was a French director, actor and screenwriter working in French cinema. Born in Marseille, he was born to a Spanish father and an Arab mother, and his sister was film director Nadine Trintignant. He can be seen as a heartthrob in French films of the 1950s.

His first film appearance was in Jean Cocteau's La Belle et la Bête in 1946. He was first noticed in Christian-Jaque's Lucrèce Borgia (1953) as Lucrezia's lover picked up in Roma streets during Carnival, he is the next day pursued about through a forest like a game at bay by Lucrezia (Martine Carol) and her brother Cesare (Pedro Armendáriz). In 1956 he was directed by Roger Vadim in Et Dieu créa la femme (And God Created Woman) opposite Brigitte Bardot.

He appeared as the French Naval Commando leader Philippe Kieffer in The Longest Day that led to later roles in American produced films such as Lord Jim and The Flight of the Phoenix. He later played the leader of a group of French in Apocalypse Now Redux.

Marquand directed two pictures, the more famous of which was Candy (1968).

Marquand was married to French actress. Tina Aumont in the 1960s. He died near Paris of Alzheimer's disease, aged 73. He was a close friend of Marlon Brando, who named his son Christian after him, as did French director Roger Vadim.