Roger Stéphane was the name used by the French writer, Roger Worms. He originally selected it in September 1941 when he joined the "Combat" Resistance group. After the Liberation he became a literary critic, author and journalist, acknowledged during his final years as a member of the Paris left wing intellectual establishment. Openly gay, he is also remembered as a pioneering campaigner for gay rights.

Gérard Philipe was a prominent French actor who appeared in 32 films between 1944 and 1959. He came to prominence during the later period of the poetic realism movement of French Cinema in the late 1940s. His best known credits include Such a Pretty Little Beach (1949), Beauty and the Devil (1950), Fan Fan the Tulip (1953), Montparnasse 19 (1958) and Les liaisons dangereuses (1959).