Victor Francen

Victor Francen (born Victor Franssens; 5 August 1888 – 18 November 1977) was a Belgian-born actor with a long career in French cinema and in Hollywood. Francen was born in 1888 in Tienen, Belgium, the son of a chief of police.

According to Russian sources, he attended opera classes in Odessa before 1914.He worked in trade in Belgium before settling in Paris, where he trained in dramatic art under Paul Mounet. His stage career in the 1920s included appearances in plays by Henri Bernstein, Georges Bataille and Edmond Rostand, which took him all over the world. After three appearances in silent films, he played the Prophet in Abel Gance's film La Fin du monde (The End of the World) (1931) and established his career as a leading man in French films.

In 1940, he was introduced to Hollywood by Charles Boyer. He appeared prolifically in American films throughout the 1940s, then made a single, final, appearance in 1954. His debut was in 1941, in Hold Back the Dawn. Among his memorable roles were as a ship's captain in Passage to Marseille (1944), an international intriguer in The Mask of Dimitrios (1944), and a French adventurer in San Antonio (1945). His last film role was as a professor in Hell and High Water (1954).