Charles De Roche — Blue Book of the Screen (1923) 🇺🇸

The romance and color of the Basque country, Southern France, is deeply engrained in Charles de Roche [Charles de Rochefort], featured leading man. It was in that country, at Port-Vendres, near the Spanish border, that he was born. He delights in roles that have a suggestion of the hazardous and that permit of picturesque treatment. There is something more than the theatrical instinct in this, as it is a quality, too, that has marked his conduct in situations not related to the screen or the stage.

He won the Croix de Guerre in the world war, and was promoted to lieutenancy for gallantry in action at Verdun and at the Somme. In his home province his reputation for daring is as great as for acting, and France has long looked upon him with affection, both as an artist and as a man. He was captured by the Germans at the Somme and was a prisoner for twenty months in the Kaiser’s country.

Although long an idol in France he attracted attention in the United States for the first time in 1921 by his acting in “The Spanish Jade.” This picture was made in Europe, but released by an American organization.

De Roche arrived in America in December, 1922, and soon after went to work in his first American-made picture for Paramount, “The Law of the Lawless,” in which Dorothy Dalton was the star, with Theodore Kosloff and Mr. de Roche in support.

De Roche was born on July 7, 1893. He weighs 178 pounds, has chestnut colored hair and gray eyes. He made his debut on the screen with Renee LePrince [René Leprince], just before the beginning of the world war. Among his successful screen creations before coming to America were Verdier in Kistermaeckers’ [Henry Kistemaekers] “Marthe,” the Duc de Corannes in “Impéria,” and the Deputy of Margemont in “Gigolette.” He also appeared in leading roles in pictures made by Perret [Léonce Perret].

De Roche is also an expert in interpretative dancing and an athlete of no mean attainments. He is a lover of all outdoor sports and displays astonishing skill at tennis, rowing, swimming, boxing, running and, in fact, almost every other sport than golf. The last named is a foreign game he has never been able to interest himself in or make any progress with. In France, soon after graduating from Hoche College, he played Rugby on a team organized in Versailles and was regarded as one of its star players.

De Roche is not married.

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Portrait by Donald Biddle Keyes • Los Angeles

Collection: The Blue Book of the Screen (1923)