Biography

Charles Henri David, writer, producer and director, was born on May 4, 1906 in the Lorraine region, in the city of Metz.

He entered the movie industry in the early 1930s, working for Pathé studios in France; he would become director of Pathé-Natan, and later in mid-1930s Head Producer (Directeur de production). There he met and worked with some of the would-be famous French directors, screenwriters and movie people of the time : Jean Renoir, Marc Allegret, Marcel Carné and the brothers Pierre and Jacques Prévert, often in his position as production manager of a series of films : Baby's Laxative (1931), The Bitch (1931) and Mam'zelle Nitouche (1931), It's in the Bag (1932) or Bizarre, Bizarre (1937).

He then started a collaboration with Zoltan and Alexander Korda, working as assistant producer in Sudan for The Four Feathers (1939) and assistant director in the British version of The Thief of Bagdad (1940).

He married his first wife Terese in 1928. They had a son and a daughter. They would later divorce.

During World War 2 Charles took the French Army uniform and served as interpreter with the RAF. The family emigrated to America in 1940 in time to escape the Nazi dominion of France. Like many other European emigrés Charles natural destiny was Hollywood. He worked as assistant producer for the Kordas in The Jungle Book (1942), he sold a story ("Fairy Tale Murder") to Universal and was offered to direct it, resulting in River Gang (1945), starring Gloria Jean. Then he became the director of Lady on a Train (1945), starring Deanna Durbin. They would wed in December 21, 1950 in France, and would stay married until his death, which took place in Paris on March 1, 1999, at the age of 92.
- IMDb mini biography by: BSK

After directing Deanna Durbin in Lady on a Train, the two were wed in 1950 and retired to France. They remained married until his death in 1999.