Biography
Paul Bonifas was a French actor born in Paris on 3 June 1902. While employed by the French customs service in the 1920s, he studied acting at the Conservatoire de Paris and won the first prize for comedy. This led to stage work with the Odéon Theatre from 1933 and the Comédie-Française from 1938. His first film role came in 1935 in Pierre Chenal's adaptation of Crime and Punishment.
During the Second World War he served as a lieutenant in the artillery, was wounded and evacuated from Dunkirk. In London he joined the Free French forces and broadcast for Radio Londres. In 1943 he formed the Molière Players, a company that performed Molière works and other French plays in London theatres and for French troops; the group appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's 1944 short Aventure malgache. He returned to France in 1946 and continued in theatre and film until his death on 9 November 1975 in Vernouillet, Yvelines.
His film credits include roles in Dead of Night (1945), Love in the Afternoon (1957), Fanny (1961) as the postman, Charade (1963) as Mr Felix, The Train (1964) as Spinet, Greed in the Sun (1964) and The Return of the Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe (1974).
