French actor and filmmaker Jean-Claude Brialy was BOTD in 1933. Born in Aumale in French-controlled Algeria to a military family, he and his family returned to mainland France when he was 11. After attending French military college, he moved to Paris to become an actor. He made his first screen appearance in Jacques Rivette’s 1956 film Le coup du berger (The Fool’s Mate) and quickly became one of the most prolific actors of the French New Wave movement. His impressive filmography includes Claude Chabrol’s Le Beau Serge, Louis Malle’s Ascenseur pour l’échafaud (Elevator to the Gallows) and Les Amants (The Lovers), François Truffaut’s Les quatre cents coups (The 400 Blows), Jean-Luc Godard’s Une femme est une femme (A woman is a woman), Éric Rohmer’s Claire’s Knee, Roger Vadim’s La ronde and Jean Renoir’s Elena et les Hommes (Elena and the Men). In later life, he directed a number of films, including 1971’s Églantine, inspired by his childhood, and also worked as a TV presenter, singer and radio host. He acquired a chateau near Paris in the 1950s, where he lived with long-term partner Bruno Finck, entertaining celebrity friends including Jean Marais, Pierre Arditi, Romy Schneider and Jean-Pierre Melville. He died in 2007, aged 74.