Eddie Constantine

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Eddie Constantine
Anna Karina and Eddie Constantine in Jean-Luc Godard's Alphaville
Born	Edward Constantinowsky October 29, 1917(1917-10-29) Los Angeles, California
Died	February 25, 1993 (aged 75) Wiesbaden, Germany
Occupation	Film actor, singer

Eddie Constantine (born Edward Constantinowsky 29 October 1917, Los Angeles, California – 25 February 1993, Wiesbaden, Germany) was an American-born French actor and singer who spent his career working in Europe.

He became well known for a series of French B movies in which he played secret agent Lemmy Caution and is now best remembered for playing the character in Jean-Luc Godard's philosophical science fiction film Alphaville.

A cult figure, Constantine also appeared in films by Rainer Werner Fassbinder (as himself in Beware of a Holy Whore 1971), Lars von Trier, and Mika Kaurismäki. He continued reprising the role of Lemmy Caution well into his 70s; his final appearance as the character was in Jean-Luc Godard's Allemagne 90 neuf zéro (1991).

Biography

Constantine became a star in France in the 1950s, most notably playing the part of the hard-boiled detective/secret agent Lemmy Caution (from Peter Cheyney's novels) in a series of French B-pictures, including Cet homme est dangereux (1953), Lemmy pour les dames (1961) and À toi de faire ... mignonne (1963). Typically, Constantine's character would be a suave-talking, seductive smooth guy, which he often played for laughs. He eventually became a French citizen and enjoyed great popularity in several European countries, including France and Germany. He also recorded several successful songs.

His most significant film was Jean-Luc Godard's Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution (1965), in which he reprised (to a more radical end) the role of Lemmy Caution. Constantine's box-office appeal in France waned in the mid-1960s, and he eventually relocated to Germany, where he worked as a character actor. Constantine claimed he never took his acting career seriously, as he considered himself to be a singer by trade. He took up the part of Lemmy for the last time in 1991, in Godard's experimental film Allemagne 90 neuf zéro. His last notable film appearance was in Lars Von Trier's Europa.

Constantine died of a heart attack on February 25, 1993.

External links

• Eddie Constantine at the Internet Movie Database
• Eddie Constantine at Allmovie