Has any actor ever been on a roll like Jean Gabin from 1936 to 1939? He starred in one classic film after another. Boom boom boom:

• “Les bas-fonds” (1936) with Jean Renoir
• “Pepe le Moko” (1936) with Julien Duvivier
• “La grand illusion” (1937) with Jean Renoir
• “Le quai des brumes” (1938) with Marcel Carne
• “La bete humaine” (1939) with Jean Renoir
• “Le jour se leve” (1939) with Marcel Carne

That’s an insane streak. Maybe Bogart in the ‘40s (“High Sierra,” “The Maltese Falcon,” “Casablanca,” “To Have and Have Not,” “The Big Sleep,” “Treasure of Sierra Madre,” “Key Largo”) or Jack Nicholson in the early ‘70s (“Five Easy “Pieces,” “King of Marvin Gardens,” “The Last Detail,” “Chinatown,” “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”) had similar runs, but...

I’m sure I’m missing somebody.

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