Habib Benglia

Habib Benglia born August 25 1895 in Oran Algeria and died December 2 1960 at the HôtelDieu hospital in Paris 4th is a French actor and dancer He was the first black French artist to experience such success in the 1920s Married he was the father of two children Born to caravan parents originally from Mali then called French Sudan he lived his entire childhood in Timbuktu before arriving with his parents in mainland France to deliver camels to the acclimatization garden where the exhibition was held colonial Les Nègres in 1912 He decided to stay in France and began his career in 1913 both in theater and in cinema after having met the actress and dancer Régine Flory who introduced him to Cora Laparcerie director of the Théâtre de la Renaissance Mobilized for the First World War he then joined Firmin Gémiers theater company which ended up at the Théâtre National de lOdéon with Gaston Baty in 1922 Benglia was thus the first black to play roles from the classical repertoire and he found himself also performing the title role of The Emperor Jones at the Odéon in 19234 at the age of 27 However he explored other aspects of his art dance revues vaudeville Theater in all its forms remained his passion for more than 36 years It was primarily through theater that he played a major role in Parisian cultural life between the wars Benglia was also interested in cinema but French cinema hardly offered him good roles He is most often found in small roles in secondrate films but also in a few colonial propaganda films sometimes in ridiculously exotic roles A few exceptions Benglia stars in Daïnah La Métisse he has interesting passages in Sola ou Les Mystères de Paris then he makes a brief appearance in Les Enfants du Paradis a film in which he only worked two days December 5 and 6 1943 In total he appeared in around sixty films It was the range of his deep voice which was most remarkable and which determined the roles entrusted to him He died on December 2 1960 at the HôtelDieu hospital in Paris