High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Maurice Tourneur was an important international film director and screenwriter. Born Maurice Thomas in the Belleville district of Paris, France, his father was a jeweler. As a young man, Maurice Thomas first trained as a graphic designer and a magazine illustrator but was soon drawn to the theater. In 1904, he married the actress, Fernande Petit. They had a son, Jacques who would follow his father into the film industry