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Albert Préjean
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Albert Préjean was born in 1894 in Paris. He served in the First World War and received the Croix de Guerre for it and later the Legion of Honour. As an actor he made his first five films between 1921 and 1923 with director Henri Diamant-Berger. His roles were often those of the strong, generous hero of the common people.
His lasting fame comes from the films of René Clair, in the transition from silent film to sound film. These include the farce Un Chapeau de Paille d'Italie from 1927 and Sous les toits de Paris from 1930. In that last film the public heard him as a singer and the title song became a sales success for the new sound film. In 1929 he himself directed a medium-length film, L'Aventure de Luna-Park. In the 1930s he was also a popular singer, notably of La Valse de Dédé Montmartre.
He continued to make films during the Second World War as well. In 1942 he travelled with a group of French actors, at the invitation of the Germans, to film studios in Berlin. In 1979 a book of his memoirs appeared, written with the help of his son Patrick, a voice actor. He died that year.
Préjean shows how in France sound film gave the chanson a new platform: an actor could turn a street song into a national sound.
Listening
Sous les toits de Paris · Albert Préjean, 1930
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