Achard, Marcel(Marcel Auguste Ferreol)

1899 - He was born Marcel-Auguste Ferréol in Sainte-Foy-les-Lyon, a Rhone departement town on July 5, 1899.

1923 - His first major success came in 1923 with renowned actor-director Charles Dullin's staging of his play "Would You Like to Play with Me?", a sensitively delicate comedy about circus and its clowns.

1952-1962 - After World War II, despite the criticism, Achard's literary output continued unabated. Among his most successful later plays were 1952's Les compagnons de la Marjolaine (The Companions of Marjoram) and 1955's Le mal d'amour (Love Sickness). The greatest popularity, however, was achieved by a 1957 comedy about a testy, ill-tempered character nicknamed Patate (Spud) and a 1962 comic mystery L'idiote (The Idiot), best known in America as the basic for the play and film A Shot in the Dark.

1974 - Marcel Achard died in Paris at the age of 75, on September 4, 1974.

• "The bedfellows politics made are never strange. It only seems that way to those who have not watched the courtship."
• "When I give a lecture, I accept that people look at their watches, but what I do not tolerate is when they look at it and raise it to their ear to find out if it stopped."