Career
Following the Nazi occupation of France in World War II, he fled to England and under Charles de Gaulle served with the Free French Forces in Europe and North Africa. As a pilot, he took part in over 25 successful sorties, logging over 65 hours of air time. During this time, he changed his name to Romain Gary. He was greatly decorated for his bravery in the war, receiving many medals and honours among which Compagnon de la Libération and commander of the Légion d'honneur. It was in 1945 that he published his first novel Education européenne . Immediately following his service in the war, he worked in the French diplomatic service in Bulgaria and Switzerland., ultimately becoming the secretary of the French Delegation to the United Nations in New York, in 1952. In 1956, he became Consul General List of diplomatic missions of France#North America of France in Los Angeles. It was in this post he became acquainted with Hollywood.
Read more about this topic: Romain Gary
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“He was at a starting point which makes many a man’s career a fine subject for betting, if there were any gentlemen given to that amusement who could appreciate the complicated probabilities of an arduous purpose, with all the possible thwartings and furtherings of circumstance, all the niceties of inward balance, by which a man swings and makes his point or else is carried headlong.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“Whether lawyer, politician or executive, the American who knows what’s good for his career seeks an institutional rather than an individual identity. He becomes the man from NBC or IBM. The institutional imprint furnishes him with pension, meaning, proofs of existence. A man without a company name is a man without a country.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)
“My ambition in life: to become successful enough to resume my career as a neurasthenic.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)