Romain Gary (8 May, 1914-2 December, 1980) was a French novelist, pilot, diplomat and yes… he directed movies as well.
Fun Facts about Romain Gary:
1. Roman Leibovich Kacey was born in Vilnius, Lithuania (at the time called Vilna and was part of the Russian Empire). His mother, Mina Owczyńska, was a Polish-Jewish actress, and his father, Arje-Lejb Kacew, was a Lithuanian Jewish businessman.
2. The Kacews divorced when when he was 11 years old and deported to Moscow in Russia. In 1923 they returned to Vilnious, then Poland, and on to Warsaw by 1926. From there the future author and his mother illegaly immigrated to Nice, France where he stuided law and became a naturalized French citizen when he was 21. Later in life, Mr. Gary claimed that his father was Ivan Mosjoukine, a strikingly handsome Russian movie star which looked like him (or vice versaj.
3. During World War II, Romain Gary joined the French Air Force. Despite finishing the course, he was the only one of his class of 300 not to be commissioned as an officer. To his dying day Mr. Gary believed that it was because the military establishment didn’t trust him because he was not French born and a Jew.
4. Once the Vichy government was established, Mr. Gary jioned the Free French flying a light British bomber in North Africa. This time his efforts and patriotism were shown a deserved appreciation and he was promoted to a second lieutenant. Taking part in over 25 sorties, he finished as a decorated captain, receiving many awards, honors, and medals.
During the war he officially changed his name to Romain Gary!
5. The prestigious title of Compagnon de la Libération (Order of Liberation) was awarded to him by none other than Charles de Gaulle himself.
6. Immediately after the war ended, he published L’Éducation européenne, his first novel. Seven years later, in 1952, he became the secretary of the French Delegation to the United and four years later the Consul General of France in Los Angeles.
7. France’s highest literary honor, The Prix Goncourt, can only be won once in a lifetime. Romain Gary, however, is the only person to win it twice for The Roots of Heaven (1956)) and The Life Before Us (1975).
8. He pulled off this prank by having his cousin’s son pose the author Émile Ajar which made fools of the French literary establishment who criticized “Gary” while praising “Ajar”, The truth was only revealed after Mr. Gary passed away through an essay he wrote appropriately titled The Life and Death of Émile Ajar.
9. He married journalist and editor of Vogue Lesley Blanch in 1944. The couple divorced in 1961 and in 1962 he married actress Jean Seberg, an American actress who made a name for herself in Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960s hit Breathless (Mr. Gary directed her in the 1971 motion picture Kill!, and wrote the screenplay for The Longest Day, a 1962 epic), and has been a French icon ever since. The couple divorced in 1970, having one son. Romain Gary found out that his wife had an affair with Clint Eastwood and promptly challenged him to a duel. Mr. Eastwood declined.
10. Romain Gary died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound while in Paris. He noted that his act has no relation to Seberg’s suicide a year before, and made sure to reaffirm that he was Émile Ajar.
Zohar — Man of la Book
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Sources:
Romain Gary | Wikipedia
Romain Gary: Novelist, Diplomat, Pilot | Britannica
