Charles Vanel

American audiences are most likely to remember Vanel as the detective on the trail of former cat burglar Cary Grant in Alfred Hitchcock's "To Catch a Thief" (1955), but perhaps the gifted actor's most memorable screen role came as the eldest of four men assigned to drive two truckloads of nitroglycerine across dangerous terrain in Henri-Georges Clouzot's agonizingly suspenseful "The Wages of Fear" (1952). Vanel deserved won an acting award at the Cannes Film Festival for his superb performance, in which his increasingly frail character suffers humiliation at the hands of Yves Montand and endures remarkable physical torment during the dangers of the journey. The seasoned, always welcome veteran continued acting in films until 1988, when he performed in Mocky's "The Seasons of Pleasure."