Paul Chemla (born January 2, 1944) is a famous French bridge player.
Chemla was born in Tunis. He studied at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris where he took up playing bridge. His wins include three European Pairs Championships (1976 with Michel Lebel, 1985 with Michel Perron, and 1999 with Alain Lévy), two World Team Olympiads (1980 and 1992), and the 1997 Bermuda Bowl. Chemla is noted for his girth and his large cigars.
Jean Daniel Cadinot (10 February 1944 – 23 April 2008) was a French photographer, and director/producer of gay pornographic films. His photography focused on homoerotic imagery, and his films are noted for their emphasis on plot and realism.
Louis René Fernand Gallois (French pronunciation: [lwi ɡalwa], born 26 January 1944) is a French businessman. He was the CEO of EADS, the European aeronautic defense and space company, from 2007 to 2012.
Gilles Marchal (2 September 1944 – 11 April 2013), born Gilles Pastre, was a French songwriter and singer who reached the height of his career during the 1970s.
Christian Liberté Boltanski (6 September 1944 – 14 July 2021) was a French sculptor, photographer, painter, and film maker. He is best known for his photography installations and contemporary French conceptual style.
Jean-Jacques Pascal known professionally as Pascal Danel (born 31 March 1944) is a French pop singer and composer.
He absconded from his school to become a tightrope walker for a travelling circus. It was at this point that he assumed his stage name. An injury following a fall, finished his high-wire days and he turned to song writing as part of his recuperation.He started his career as a singer in 1962. After two minor hits, he scored a number 1 hit single in France and various European countries with "La Plage aux Romantiques", a gold disc in 1966, followed in 1967 by the international success of "Kilimandjaro", a platinum and number 1 single, recorded by Danel in six languages. The song was recorded more than 180 times by various international artists, and is one of the biggest French standards of the decade.
He then recorded many of his songs not only in French, but also in Italian, Spanish or Japanese, and toured internationally. In 1972, he came in third place in the Rose d'Or d'Antibes song festival singing "Ton Ame".Many hits followed, including another number one with "Comme Une Enfant" and several Top 10 hits in the late 1960s and 1970s. Some other singles were only minor hits. In 1979, "La Plage aux Romantiques" hit the Top 5 again, Danel toured again, and released a live album, as well as new songs. He came back in the mid 1980s as a successful TV producer, and hit the charts again in 1989 with a compilation produced by his son, Jean-Pierre, a guitarist and producer, earning Danel another gold disc. His last album with new material was published in 2000.Between 2007 and 2009, Pascal was one of the few members of a major two years and a half long nostalgic tour, along with some icons of the 1960s, playing sold-out concerts in the biggest French concert halls. The tour sold 1,750,000 tickets.
Jean-François Stévenin (French: [stevnɛ̃]; 23 April 1944 – 27 July 2021) was a French actor and filmmaker. He appeared in 150 films and television shows since 1968. He starred in the film Cold Moon, which was entered into the 1991 Cannes Film Festival.
Dominique Lecourt (French: [ləkuʁ]; 5 February 1944 – 1 May 2022) was a French philosopher. He is known in the Anglophone world primarily for his work developing a materialist interpretation of the philosophy of science of Gaston Bachelard.
Marcel-Louis Bozonnet (born 18 May 1944, in Semur-en-Auxois), is a French actor.
Bozonnet entered the Comédie-Française in 1982, and became a "sociétaire" in 1986. He subsequently directed the Conservatoire national supérieur d'art dramatique de Paris from 1993 to 2001.
Appointed administrateur général of the Comédie-Française in 2001, il opened the salle Richelieu to contemporary authors (creating a poay of Valère Novarina in 2006), created a notable show on the Fables of Jean de La Fontaine produced by Bob Wilson, and recruited the first black member of the Théâtre Français (Bakary Sangaré).
Nonetheless, certain of his productions did not convince the critics, such as Le Tartuffe (which he produced himself), and Le Cid (El Cid) in 2006.
In 2006, he was at the centre of a row after he discontinued the production of a play by Peter Handke Voyage au pays sonore ou l'Art de la question, which was under negotiation in 2007. Handke, an Austrian playwright, had attended the burial of the reviled Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic and had made a speech there denying the events of the Yugoslav war. It was for this reason that Bozonnet withdrew support for showing Handke's play. Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, the French minister of culture, implicitly criticized Bozonnet's action in a letter addressed to Bozonnet, and by deciding to invite Handke to the ministry.
Despite hoping for another term as administrator of the Comédie-Française, his directorship was not renewed, and Muriel Mayette took over on 4 August 2006.
Francis Girod (9 October 1944 – 19 November 2006) was a French film director, actor, and screenwriter. He directed 20 films between 1974 and 2006. His film L'enfance de l'art was entered into the 1988 Cannes Film Festival. In 1994 he was a member of the jury at the 44th Berlin International Film Festival.