Celebrated French music-hall entertainer, famous for his straw hat, rolling eyes, protruding lower lip, cheerfully boisterous singing style and risque humor, in films from 1908. One of the most famous and beloved Frenchmen of the century, Chevalier hit his peak in film after the coming of sound, when he was one of Paramount's, indeed Hollywood's pre-eminent stars, appearing in such delightful musical comedies and operettas as Ernst Lubitsch's "The Love Parade" (1929) and "The Merry Widow" (1934) and Rouben Mamoulian's "Love Me Tonight" (1932). Though awarded the Croix de Guerre after being wounded and captured by the Germans during WWI, Chevalier was accused of collaboration in the Second World War. Later exonerated, he emerged more popular than ever, singing, appearing in international films and, in "Gigi" (1958), thanking "heaven for little girls."