Jules Dassin

@T V, Facts and Life ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Jules Dassin was a distinguished American film director, actor, producer and screen writer Connecticut American Film & Theater Personalities Directors T V & Movie Producers Sagittarius Celebrities Jules Dassin was a distinguished American film director, actor, producer and screen writer who became a successful director in Europe after being blacklisted from Hollywood. His earlier association with the American ‘Communist Party’ saw him becoming a subject of Hollywood blacklist during the mid-20th century. Dassin had to leave the US in 1953 and by that time he had already become successful in carving a niche in Hollywood directing noir films like ‘Thieves Highway’, ‘The Naked City’, ‘Brute Force’ and ‘Night and the City’. He moved to France and after struggling for a few years accepted to direct a low-budget film ‘Rififi’, which went on to become a huge success in France apart from garnering critical acclaim. The film fetched him the Best Director award at the 1955 ‘Cannes Film Festival’ and also paved way for other opportunities. Some of his remarkable films followed including ‘Never on Sunday’, ‘Topkapi’, ‘He Who Must Die’ and ‘La Legge’, of which the last two were joint efforts with the Greek actress Melina Mercouri who starred in many of his films and later became his better-half. He also performed in many of his films. He directed ‘Illya Darling’, a Broadway musical. It was based on his film ‘Never on Sunday’ and starred Mercouri, who received a ‘Tony Award’ nomination for her performance. Dassin revived his career in Hollywood in the late 1960s with films like ‘Uptight’ and ‘Promise at Dawn’.

Personal Details

Birthday: December 18, 1911 Died on: March 31, 2008 Nationality: American Famous: Film Director, Movie Producers, Producer, T V, Film & Theater Personalities, Directors, T V & Movie Producers City/State: Connecticut Spouses: Béatrice Launer (1937–1962; divorced), Melina Mercouri (1966–1994; her death) Known as: Julius 'Jules' Dassin Information Detail Birthday December 18, 1911 Died on March 31, 2008 Nationality American Famous Film Director, Movie Producers, Producer, T V, Film & Theater Personalities, Directors, T V & Movie Producers City/State Connecticut Spouses Béatrice Launer (1937–1962; divorced), Melina Mercouri (1966–1994; her death) Known as Julius 'Jules' Dassin Childrens Dassin Richelle Dassin, Joseph Ira, Julie Dassin Birth Place Middletown, Connecticut, U.S. Gender Male Father Samuel Dassin Mother Berthe Vogel Sun Sign Sagittarius Born in Middletown, Connecticut, U.S. Famous as Film Director, Producer Died at Age 96

Middletown, Connecticut, U.S.

Jules Dassin born at Unsplash Birth Place

He married a Jewish-American violinist Béatrice Launer in 1937. The couple had three children, a son, Joseph Ira Dassin and two daughters, Richelle "Rickie" Dassin and Julie Dassin. Dassin divorced Béatrice in 1962. Unsplash Personal Life

Joseph Ira Dassin, more popular as Joe Dassin, was a well-known French singer of the 1960s and 1970s with hit numbers as ‘Aux Champs-Èlysées’, ‘L'Eté Indien’ and ‘Bip Bip’ to his credit. Richelle is a songwriter and Julie is an actress-cum-singer. Unsplash Personal Life

In 1966 he married Greek actress Melina Mercouri, who was ex-wife of Panos Harokopos. Dassin and Mercouri together had no children. Unsplash Personal Life

He was born on December 18, 1911, in Middletown, Connecticut, US, as Julius Samuel Dassin in the family of Russian-Jewish immigrants, Samuel Dassin and Berthe Vogel as one of their eight children. His father was a barber. Unsplash Childhood & Early Life

He was raised in Harlem and studied in the Bronx at the ‘Morris High School’ from where he completed his graduation in 1929. Unsplash Childhood & Early Life

For a while he went to Europe to take acting classes and later came back to New York. From 1934 to 1939 he remained an actor of the ARTEF Players (Arbeter Teater Farband) in New York, performing mostly in the plays of Sholom Aleichem playing character roles in Yiddish. However, he later switched from acting to writing and directing. He also penned down radio scripts for ‘The Kate Smith Show’. Unsplash Childhood & Early Life

Dassin joined the American ‘Communist Party’ in the 1930s but left the party in 1939. Unsplash Childhood & Early Life

He landed up in Hollywood in 1940 and for a while worked as an assistant director at RKO. Unsplash Career

He made his directorial debut in 1941 with ‘Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’ Studios Inc (‘MGM’). He did several B-films for the studio including ‘Nazi Agent’ (1942), ‘Reunion in France’ (1942), ‘Young Ideas’ (1943), ‘The Canterville Ghost’ (1944), ‘A Letter for Evie’ (1945) and ‘Two Smart People’ (1946) among others. Unsplash Career

Moving forward he left ‘MGM’ to join ‘Universal Studios’, one of the oldest and renowned film studios of Hollywood. There he turned his focus to more dramatic movies shifting from his earlier romantic comedies. Unsplash Career

He directed the 1947 film noir ‘Brute Force’ that starred Burt Lancaster. This film marked the beginning of his working on a series of remarkable film noirs that he delivered during the post-war period. These included ‘The Naked City’ (1948) and ‘Thieves' Highway’ (1949). In no time he established himself as one of the leading filmmakers of America during that era. Unsplash Career

Meanwhile in 1948 he was informed by American film producer and studio executive Darryl F. Zanuck that he would be a subject of Hollywood blacklist, however he had sufficient time to work on a film for ‘20th Century Fox’. Thus Dassin began his work on the film noir ‘Night and the City’, which was released in 1950. During the production of the film he was blacklisted in Hollywood which restricted him from entering the studio property for editing or for any other work on the film. However this ground-breaking film noir was highly acclaimed by the critics circle and was marked as one of his masterpieces in this genre. Unsplash Career

Information	Detail
Birthday	December 18, 1911
Died on	March 31, 2008
Nationality	American
Famous	Film Director, Movie Producers, Producer, T V, Film & Theater Personalities, Directors, T V & Movie Producers
City/State	Connecticut
Spouses	Béatrice Launer (1937–1962; divorced), Melina Mercouri (1966–1994; her death)
Known as	Julius 'Jules' Dassin
Childrens	Dassin Richelle Dassin, Joseph Ira, Julie Dassin
Birth Place	Middletown, Connecticut, U.S.
Gender	Male
Father	Samuel Dassin
Mother	Berthe Vogel
Sun Sign	Sagittarius
Born in	Middletown, Connecticut, U.S.
Famous as	Film Director, Producer
Died at Age	96

Jules Dassin

American

Dec 18, 1911

Biography

Personal Details

Middletown, Connecticut, U.S.