Cassel, Jean-Pierre

(1932- )

   Actor. Jean-Pierre Cassel was born Jean-Pierre Crochon in Paris, the son of a doctor and an opera singer. His first appearance in film was in Maurice Labro and Giorgio Simonelli's Saluti e baci (1953). He then played small parts in Anatole Litvak's French- and English-language Un acte d'amour (1953) and Gene Kelly's The Happy Road (1958). He later landed a leading role in Claude Boissol's La Peau de l'ours (1957).

   It was Cassel's work with Philippe de Broca that really launched his career. He appeared in such films as Les jeux de l'amour (1960), Le Farceur (1960), L'Amant de cinq jours (1961), and Un Monsieur de compagnie (1965). In the 1960s, Cassel also played the title role in Norbert Carbonneaux's Candide, ou l'optimisme au XXe siècle (1960). He starred in Jean Renoir's Le Caporal épingle (1962), Abel Gance's Cyrano et d'Artagnan (1963), René Clair's Les Fêtes galantes (1965), Alain Jessua's Jeu de massacre (1967), and Michel Deville's L'ours et la poupée (1969).

   In the 1970s, Cassel continued to work with celebrated directors from Europe and the United States. He starred in Claude Chabrol's La Rupture (1970), Harry Kumel's Malpertuis (1971), Deville's Le Mouton enragé (1974), and Jean-Louis Bertucelli's Docteur Françoise Gailland (1975). He also appeared in Luis Bunuel's Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie (1972), Richard Lester's The Three Musketeers (1973) and The Four Musketeers (1974), Sidney Lumet's Murder on the Orient Express (1974), Christopher Miles's That Lucky Touch (1975), and Chantai Akerman's Les Rendez-vous d'Anna (1978).

   In the early 1980s, Cassel maintained an international presence while landing significant roles in French films. He starred in Pierre Kast's Le Soleil en face (1980), Moshé Mizrahi's La Vie continue (1981), Emidio Greco's Ehrengard (1982), Kast's La Guérilléra (1982), and Joseph Losey's La Truite (1982). He appeared in Lester's Superman II (1980) and Nino Manfredi's Nudo di donna (1981). He also acted in several television productions.

   In the 1990s, Cassel acted in a variety of international films. He played starring roles in Marion Hansel's Sur la terre comme au ciel (1992) and Jean Marboeuf's Pétain (1993). He also appeared in Philippe Setbon's Mister Frost (1990), Ian Toynton's The Maid (1991), Ben Lewin's The Favour, the Watch, and the Very Big Fish (1991), Antonio de Macedo's ChâForte com Limâo (1993), Luis Filipe Rocha's Amor e Dedinhos de Pé (1993), Chabrol's L'Enfer (1994), Gérard Jugnot's Casque blue (1994), and Juan Manuel Chumilla's Amores que matan (1996). Cassel played in two Robert Altman films, Vincent and Theo (1990) and Pret à porter (1994). In 1993 he appeared with his son, Vincent Cassel, in Mathieu Kassovitz's Métisse, and in 1996, he was nominated for a César for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Chabrol's La Cérémonie (1996).

   In the twenty-first century, Cassel still impresses his cinema and television audiences while working on decidedly more international projects. He has played supporting roles in Benoît Jacquot's Sade (2000), Kassovitz's Les Rivières pourpres (2000), South African director Ntshaveni Wa Luruli's The Wooden Camera (2003), Louis-Pascal Couvelaire's Michel Vaillant (2003), Tristan Aurouet and Gilles Lellouche's Narco (2004), Denis Thybaud's Dans tes rêves (2005), Mabrouk El Mechri's Virgil (2005), and Stefan Liberski's Bunker Paradise (2005).

   Historical Dictionary of French Cinema by Dayna Oscherwitz & Mary Ellen Higgins