Sacha Guitry, whose full name is Alexandre Georges-Pierre Guitry, is a French actor and playwright, theatre director, film director and screenwriter, born on February 21, 1885, in Saint Petersburg (Russia) and died on July 24, 1957, in Paris.
A prolific playwright, he wrote 124 plays, many of which were major successes, and adapted seventeen of them for the cinema himself. Starring in almost all of his own films, he created a cinematic body of work comprising thirty-six films, notably including The Story of a Cheat, Désiré, My Father Was Right, Quadrille, They Were Nine Bachelors, La Poison, Royal Affairs in Versailles, and Assassins and Thieves.
Sacha Guitry and Yvonne Printemps in 1922
Sacha Guitry is the son of Lucien Guitry (1860–1925), a great and highly famous theatre actor of his time, and of Renée Delmas, known as de Pont-Jes, daughter of journalist René de Pont-Jest, who also tried her hand at acting. Alexandre (Sacha is a diminutive) was born in the capital of the Russian Empire where his father was performing, and was named in honor of his godfather, Tsar Alexander III, who appreciated Lucien Guitry's talent.
A mediocre student, Guitry quickly proved to be a brilliant actor (though his father initially opposed it before finally agreeing on the condition that his son first perform in the provinces and adopt a pseudonym) and soon became an excellent author and director. He wrote his own plays, sometimes in less than three days, and directed and starred in them. His first play, Le Page (1902), achieved modest success with 35 performances.
