12 September: Maurice Chevalier

Maurice Chevalier, French actor, singer, and popular entertainer was born on this date in 1888. Here are 10 things you might not know about him:

1. He was born in Paris, the son of Victor, a house painter, and Joséphine, a Lace maker.

2. Maurice left school at the age of ten because he wanted to become an acrobat. However, a serious injury put paid to that ambition. He tried a number of other jobs: a carpenter's apprentice, an electrician, a printer, and a Doll painter. While working at a mattress factory, he used to daydream about performing which resulted in him getting his finger crushed in a machine so he had to leave that job.

3. His first public performance was during his recovery, when he persuaded a local cafe owner to let him sing for the customers. However, he sang his debut song three octaves too high and was laughed at. His mother and brother persuaded him to keep practising and it eventually paid off when a member of the theatre heard him sing (unpaid) in the cafe and suggested he audition for a local musical.

4. Chevalier was an infantryman in the French army during World War I. He was injured in the back by shrapnel and captured by the Germans. He spent two years in the Alten Grabow POW camp where he learned to speak English. He was released in 1916 when the King of Spain intervened on his behalf.

5. During World War II he carried on performing for as long as he could to raise money for resistance efforts and refusing to perform for the Germans, pretending to be ill. Eventually, out of fear for the safety of his Jewish wife and her parents, he reluctantly agreed to a deal. He refused to perform on the collaborating station Radio Paris, but agreed to perform for prisoners of war at the very camp in which he had been incarcerated during World War I. The performance was given in exchange for the release of ten French prisoners.

6. In his youth, he was a sparring partner to heavyweight boxing champion Georges Carpentier.

7. Five of his films were nominated for Oscars: The Love Parade (1929), The Smiling Lieutenant (1931), One Hour with You (1932), Gigi (1958) and Fanny (1961). Gigi was the only winner.

8. In 1951, the U.S. declared Chevalier "potentially dangerous" to the security of the United States because he’d signed a petition against nuclear weapons.

9. His last contribution to the film industry was singing the title song of the Disney film The Aristocats.

10. On March 7, 1971, he attempted suicide by overdosing on barbiturates. Rushed to the hospital, Chevalier was saved but suffered liver and Kidney damage. He never quite recovered from that and died from a cardiac arrest following kidney surgery on New Year's Day 1972, aged 83.

Character birthday

Chang, Japanese martial artist and member of the gang of villains known as the Bruisers. Chang's motivation is to maintain the purity of the ancient martial arts. For this reason, he will not fight another martial artist outside of the dojo. However, when faced with an opponent which he believes is not a true martial artist or practices martial arts he believes are diluted or which he doesn't recognise, he will attack them mercilessly. This sadistic streak came to light when Chang took part in trials for the Combat Teams and he was rejected by all of them.