Gérard Oury (April 29, 1919, Paris – July 20, 2006, Saint-Tropez) was a French actor, writer and producer. His real name was Max-Gérard Tannenbaum.
The son of Serge Tannenbaum, a violonist, and Marcelle Houry, a journalist, Oury studied at Lycée Janson de Sailly and at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art. He became a member of the Comédie-Française, just one year before World War II, but fled to Switzerland to escape the anti-Jewish laws decreed by the Vichy government.
After 1945, he re-started his career as an actor, playing at theatre and in second-role in cinema. He became a movie director in 1959 (The Itchy Palm), and gained his first success in 1961, with Crime Does Not Pay (Le crime ne paie pas).
Joining Bourvil and Louis de Funès as a comic duo, he burst into commercial filmmaking with The Sucker (Le corniaud), followed three years after by Don't Look Now - We're Being Shot At (La Grande Vadrouille), drawing the largest audiences ever in France, only later surpassed by Titanic from James Cameron.
Living together with the French actress Michèle Morgan, he was the father of French writer Danièle Thompson and grandfather of actor/writer Christopher Thompson. He died aged 87 in Saint-Tropez on July 20, 2006.
