- Born
- Died
- Birth nameThierry Christian Charles Franc
- Born Thierry Christian Charles Franc in the picturesque countryside of Laval (Mayenne, Pays-de-la-Loire), France on 28 May 1940, Thierry Pathé was a Franco-American Producer, Director, Cinematographer, and Educator.
Grandson of the legendary French filmmaker, studio executive, and recording mogul Charles Morand Pathé, founder of Pathé Frères along with his brothers Émile, Théophile, and Jacques in 1896, he moved to the United States with his family at the age of 2, eventually becoming a naturalized U.S. Citizen and adopting the last name of his grandfather as an adult.
As a young man, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, where he was trained as a cinematographer. Like his grandfather, Thierry loved the film camera; his grandfather had, indeed, been extremely innovative with early camera technology, designing both studio and hand-held film cameras which greatly improved upon the patents which Pathé Frères had acquired from the Lumière brothers in 1902. After completing his military service, he began his civilian career as cinematographer on the set of the classic television series Batman (1966).
Pathé made his professional entrée into the world of feature filmmaking as special effects supervisor, laboratory supervisor, and technical supervisor for the Spanish film El Colleccionista de Cadaveres (Cauldron of Blood, also known in English as Blind Man's Bluff) (1970), produced by Robert D. Weinbach and Edward Mann, and written and directed by Edward Mann. The film starred the legendary Boris Karloff as the eccentric, blind sculptor Franz Badulescu, and Viveca Lindfors in the role of Tania Badulescu, the artist's psychopathic wife. It was one of the last horror films of Boris Karloff's iconic career.
Pathé later produced the American cult hicksploitation film Hooch (1977) for Edward Mann, who wrote and directed the film. Featuring Gil Gerard as shine-runnin' "Eddie Joe Rodgers" and Danny Aiello as carpetbaggin' mobster "Tony" seeking a cut of the profits, Hooch inspired the popular, and controversial, American television series Dukes of Hazzard (1979), which aired for seven seasons on CBS and served as inspiration for the coining of the pop fashion term "Daisy Dukes".
Encouraged by the cinematic tradition within his own family, as well as by Edward Mann's mastery of both the pen and the craft of film production, he wrote a number of screenplays which were sadly never produced, and produced and/or directed a number of films which were sadly never released (among them, "Toot Suite"). Thus, a significant portion of his work is not yet known to the public. Several years prior to his death, he was cinematographer for Growing Down in Brooklyn (2000), a semi-autobiographical film recounting the tragic spiral of 4 young Italian-American men from Midwood, Brooklyn, starring Anthony Caso, Amy Hargreaves, Donnie Keshawarz, Tina Louise, and Vincent Pastore.
Well-loved by generations of NYU filmmaking students, both within the School of Professional Studies and the Tisch School of the Arts, Thierry Pathé's work demonstrates a love for his native France and for culture and community across the American landscape which became his home, as well as a love for addressing the concerns of young people and young adults coming of age, all of which was simultaneously manifest in his parallel career as an Educator.
In an interview with France 3 (then FR3) while visiting Chevry-Cossigny (Seine-et-Marne, Île-de-France), France in May 1992 for an exhibition celebrating Charles Pathé's life as a film industry pioneer, Thierry admired that his grandfather "was not afraid to face a challenge, to try new things, to continue when other people stopped", qualities celebrated and embraced by filmmakers from generation to generation. On this occasion, he also visited the house where his ingenious grandfather was born - then the home of the Mayor of Chevry-Cossigny - for the very first time.
Thierry Pathé died of cancer in New York City on 6 April 2002, at the age of 61, leaving behind one son, a half-sister, and hundreds, if not thousands, of former students with whom he shared his love for the Seventh Art, a number of whom have gone on to master their craft at the highest level, including Oscar winners Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee, Angelina Jolie, and Joel and Ethan Coen, and Oscar nominee Susan Seidelman.
(Published 25 March 2020)- IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous
- Thierry Pathé also directed a number of television commercials for Rolex®.
- Grandson of Charles Pathé.
- Your entire movie could be out of focus, but you can't have bad sound...
- My grandfather (Charles Pathé) was not afraid to face a challenge, to try new things, to continue when other people stopped.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content