Joubé, Romuald

(1876-1949)

   Actor. Romuald Joubé was a stage actor of some renown. He performed at the Odéon under the direction of André Antoine, and was in residence at the Comédie Française from 1921 to 1922. Although Joubé's career was spent primarily on the stage, he managed a respectable film career as well. He got his start in the cinema in productions made by Studio Film d'Art, but continued making films after the studio closed. In total, Joubé appeared in over forty films over a period of more than thirty years.

   Joubé made his debut onscreen in 1910 in Henri Desfontaines's Shy-lock, in which he appeared with Harry Baur. That same year, Joubé appeared in Camille de Morlhon's Polyeucte (1910), and the following year, he appeared in Georges Denola's Philemon et Baucis (1911) and Albert Capellani and Desfontaines's La Momie (1911). Among Joubé's other silent film performances are de Morlhon's Brittanicus (1912), Henri Pouctal's Serge Panine (1913) and Pêcheur d'Islande (1915), Desfontaines's La Reine Margot (1914), La Fôret qui écoute (1916), and Le Dernier rêve (1916), Capellani's Les Deux gosses (1914) and Marie Tudor (1917), Antoine's Les Frères corses (1917) and Mademoiselle de la Seglière (1920), Abel Gance's J'accuse! (1919), Henri Fescourt's Mathias Sandorf (1920) and Rouletabille chez le bohemians (1922), Jean Kemm's L'Énigme (1921), André Hugon's Le Diamant noir (1922), Henri Étiévant's La Fille sauvage (1922), and Raymond Bernard's Le Miracle des loups (1924).

   Joubé's career more or less failed to survive the advent of sound cinema. He had a handful of minor, some even uncredited, roles in film during the sound era, but was one of those actors who was not able to reestablish his film career in speaking roles. Among the sound films in which Joubé did appear are Christian-Jacque and Sacha Guitry's Les Perles de la couronne (1937), Gance's sound remake of J'accuse! (1938), Émile Couzinet's Andorra ou les homes d'Airain (1942) and Le Brigand gentilhomme (1943), and Hugon's Le Chant de l'exilé (1943).

   Historical Dictionary of French Cinema by Dayna Oscherwitz & Mary Ellen Higgins