Before Pierre Niney, five French actors who played the hero of Alexandre Dumas

The original work, the novel by Alexandre Dumas published from 1844 to 1846, has seen countless adaptations and not only on the big screen.

Do we even know how many different faces Edmond Dantès appeared to us? The hero of the novel the count of Monte Cristopublished by Alexandre Dumas from 1844 to 1846, has seen more than fifty interpretations around the world, crossing the ages and exploring all the arts, or almost.

It is now Pierre Niney’s turn to tackle the monument, in a new film adaptation which is released in theaters this Friday, June 28, co-directed by Alexandre de La Patellière and Matthieu Delaporte, the directors of the very recent remakes of Three Musketeers.

Before Pierre Niney, many French actors had taken on the role of the former young sailor launched into a mad quest for revenge. Here are five essential ones.

1 Pierre Richard-Willm, star thanks to Monte-Cristo (1943)

He is an actor whose name is probably mentioned among insiders, lovers of cinema from another era. However, director Robert Vernay had quite naturally chosen Pierre Richard-Willm to make him his first Edmond Dantès, ten years before his second adaptation of the novel.

“She was the Brigitte Bardot of the time. He couldn’t walk in the street without being mobbed by fans.“, says his biographer, historian Claire Strohm, in Vosges Morning. It was by slipping into the skin of the Count of Monte Cristo that the actor then enjoyed unprecedented notoriety in his career. 80 years later, it is the turn of another star of his time, Pierre Niney, to continue to keep the figure of Edmond Dantès alive in the imagination.

2 Jean Marais, a Dantès full of panache (1954)

Here is the very first color adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ novel under the direction of Robert Vernay who is directing the film in two separate parts. To play the Count of Monte Cristo, the director called on Jean Marais, a flamboyant actor of the time. The film, a commercial success, allowed the actor to launch a new impetus to his career, now popular for playing in swashbuckling films.

3 Louis Jourdan, the most American (1961)

Louis Jourdan is a name that resonates across the Atlantic. The French actor, born in Marseille, successfully established himself in American cinema in the 1940s. He then led a career between Hollywood and his native country, where he returned more occasionally. This is how director Claude Autant-Lara asked him to take on the role of Edmond Dantès.

This version of the Count of Monte Cristo, the fruit of a Franco-Italian collaboration, was released in 1961. The film, like the previous one, was made in two periods, The treason Then Revengefor a duration of approximately three hours.

4 Jacques Weber, under the baton of Alexandre de la Patellière’s father (1979)

Considered one of the best and most faithful adaptations of the novel, the 1979 version features Jacques Weber in the hero’s costume. Here again, the work is available in a mini-series of six sixty-minute episodes, broadcast on FR3. On the set, a certain Alexandre de la Patellière, then eight years old, watched the different takes. The young boy came to accompany his father, director Denys de La Patellière, in charge of directing the Franco-Italian-German production.

Fascinated by the character of Edmond Dantès, Jacques Weber did not stop at television. In 1987, then director of the Sud-Est drama center in Nice, the French actor himself took charge of adapting a version of the Count of Monte Cristo at the theater, while playing the title role.

5 Gérard Depardieu, in a series by Josée Dayan (1998)

Until now, he was the latest Frenchman to have immersed himself in the shoes of Edmond Dantès. Gérard Depardieu, currently the subject of a legal investigation for sexual assault, played in the version of Count of Monte Cristo directed by Josée Dayan in 1998. The choice was then made to adapt Dumas’ work in the form of a serial, divided into four episodes lasting one hundred minutes each. The screenplay, by Didier Decoin, allows itself some generosity. A brand new character is created for the occasion: Camille de la Richardais, played by Florence Darel.

For Gérard Depardieu, casting is a family affair. It is his son, Guillaume Depardieu, who plays the young Edmond Dantès before he is betrayed. The father then takes up the torch to lend his features to the aging character, more hardened by life, after fourteen years imprisoned in the Château d’If. The actor’s daughter, Julie Depardieu, is also in the game, playing the character of Valentine de Villefort.