Beginnings
Born October 26, 1912, in Cairo, Egypt; died August 25, 2004, in Riverside, California. His real name is Roger Abdo Harari. His brother Robert Harari had emigrated to the United States in 1929, and his brothers Victor and Roger visited him on July 16, 1936. He also had a brother named Gustave, all of whom were fruit merchants. Roger arranged to return and stay for good: he lived in Paris in the meantime, returning on July 7, 1937, and applying for American naturalization in 1939. Robert became a screenwriter, and Roger, who quickly changed his name to Roger Valmy after his mother’s maiden name (Françoise Devalmy Bigio), became an actor. His films are known from 1944 to 1955. These are only a handful of films, and he is rarely credited. A July 6, 1946 article in the Boston Post tells us that he appeared several times on radio in the Jack Benny show.
He was often cast in French seductive or military roles, sharing the screen with Anne Baxter, Gene Tierney, Tyrone Power, Lauren Bacall…
Real Estate Agent
He was also a good friend of Oleg Cassini’s (“Everyone called him ‘Frenchie'” reports Oleg in his autobiography).
He even got his picture published in Cinémonde on February 17, 1948, as an apache in The Razor’s Edge, standing alongside Tyrone Power, Gene Tierney, Anne Baxter, John Payne and Herbert Marshall. It seems, however, that this was his last role before he decided to become a real estate agent.
He married actress Wilma Francis, née Wilma Francis Sareussen, on September 30, 1951 in Los Angeles. Again, the Boston Post reports that the ceremony took place in the bride’s home, in the strictest privacy. Unsurprisingly, among the friends present were Oleg Cassini, actress Nancy Valentine, writer Pierre La Mure, William T. Orr and his wife Joy Page, Jack Warner’s daughter-in-law.
Yet Roger Valmy regularly appeared in the press as a ladies’ date at society parties: Doris Duke on January 15, 1951 in the Pittsburgh Post, Doris Dowling on March 22, 1951 in the Warsaw Times, Francesca de Scaffa Cabot on May 11, 1951 in The Boston American, Martha Ellis on October 21, 1953 in the Warsaw Times, Barbara Sheridan on February 13, 1956 in The Daily Reporter from Dover, Ohio, Claudia Boyer on January 4, 1958, and Gloria Gilmore on January 21, 1958 in The Catholic Press.
Perhaps this is why his wife, who had apparently abandoned her career a few years before the wedding, took it up again in 1959, the year she returned to her native New Orleans. Was this a break-up?
In any case, for Roger, 1955 marked his return to the screen (The Catholic Press announced his participation as early as September 30, 1954), as well as his farewell: he played a soldier in Jump Into Hell, and appeared in an episode of The Mickey Rooney Show where he sported a magnificent bald spot and retained a trace of French accent. He was never seen on screen again.
Snow White
At the time of the Snow White French dubbing, he was 25 years old and living as a bachelor at 1557 Marmont Avenue, A D 59, Los Angeles.
Although he most likely twisted his voice, and there no proof surfacing this far, based on his rare screen appearances, Roger Valmy is most likely the voice of Sneezy.
