Jacques Becker
| Jacques Becker | |
|---|---|
| Born |
15 September 1906 Paris, France |
| Died | 21 February 1960 (aged 53) Paris, France |
| Occupation |
Screenwriter Film director |
| Years active | 1935–1960 |
| Notable work |
Casque d'Or Le Trou Touchez pas au grisbi |
| Spouse(s) | Françoise Fabian |
Jacques Becker (French: [bɛkɛʁ]; 15 September 1906 – 21 February 1960) was a French screenwriter and film director.
Becker first worked in the 1930s as an assistant to director Jean Renoir during what is considered the latter's peak period, including such works as La Grande Illusion (1938) and The Rules of the Game (1939). Part of the Comité de libération du cinéma français, the Nazis held Becker in prison for a year during the German occupation of France in World War II. During the occupation, he became a director in his own right. He would go on to direct the period romance Casque d'Or (1952), the influential gangster film Touchez pas au grisbi (1954), and the prison escape drama Le Trou (1959). While he remains lesser-known internationally than peers such as Marcel Carné and Renoir, Becker is nonetheless regarded as a major French filmmaker, with Casque d'Or held in high esteem among film critics.
Born in Paris, Becker was of an upper-class background. His father Louis Becker, of Lorraine ascendance was corporate director for Fulmen, a battery manufacturer; his Irish mother, Margaret Burns, held a fashion house in rue Cambon near Chanel in Paris.
Becker married actress Françoise Fabian, and his son Jean Becker also became a film director.
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