Jules Dassin, born Julius Dassin (December 18, 1911 – March 31, 2008) was an American film director. He was a subject of the Hollywood blacklist, and subsequently moved to France where he revived his career.
One of eight children of a Russian-Jewish barber in Middletown, Connecticut, Dassin started as a Yiddish actor with the ARTEF (Yiddish Proletarian Theater) company in New York. He collaborated on a film with Jack Skurnick that was incomplete because of Skurnick's early death.
Dassin quickly became better known for his noir films Brute Force, The Naked City, and Thieves' Highway in the 1940s. His 1960 film Never on Sunday earned the music Academy Award (Manos Hadjidakis, Ta Paidia tou Peiraia), and the Cannes Film Festival best actress award (Melina Mercouri).[1][2]
He was considered a major Philhellene to the point of Greek officials describing him as a "first generation Greek". Along with his last wife, Melina Mercouri, he opposed the Greek military junta. A major supporter of the return of the Elgin Marbles to Athens, for which he established the Melina Mercouri Institution in her memory, he missed the opening ceremony of the New Acropolis Museum by only a few months due to his death at the age of 96.[1]
Children
Jules Dassin had three children from his marriage to Beatrice Launer: Joe Dassin (1938–1980), a popular French singer in the 1970s who died from a heart attack, and two daughters, songwriter Richelle Dassin, Rickie (*1940) and actress Julie Dassin (*1944). Melina Mercouri and Dassin had no children together. In later years, Dassin retained an interest in politics despite advanced age and failing health.
Filmography
References
External links
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The films of Jules Dassin |
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| 1940s |
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| 1950s |
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| 1960s |
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| 1970s |
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| 1980s |
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Middletown, Connecticut, United States
Athens, Greece