 He became a member of the Comédie-Française just one year before World War II, but fled to Switzerland to escape the anti-Jewish persecutions by the Vichy government.After 1945 he restarted his career as an actor, performing in the theatre and in supporting roles in the cinema.Oury became a movie director in 1959 ("") and gained his first success in 1961 with "Crime Does Not Pay" ("Le crime ne paie pas").