Jules Dassin - Biography

Last Editor: gangsta_gurl				Jules Dassin Biography -   Name : Jules Dassin Date of Birth : December 18, 1911 Place of Birth : Middletown, Connecticut, United States Date of Death : March 31, 2008 Place of Death : Athens, Greece Age : 96

Jules Dassin Trivia -

Jules has 2 daughters and one son. He has been named as a communist by the director called Edward Dmytryk for the HUAC in the year 1952. This put Dassin on black list and thus he was being forced him to get settled at . Jules's son,namely, Joseph Dassin (1938-1980), became one of the most popular singers of France . His hit numbers include "Bip Bip", "L'Eté Indien" and "Aux Champs-Èlysées.". He was the father of Julie Dassin. In the year 1968, he got the nomination for 2 Tony Awards. Categories include as Best Director (Musical) and also Best Musical nominee since he was the author of the book of Best Musical nominee "Ilya, Darling," a musical version of his film Pote tin Kyriaki (1960). Jules was the member of jury at the Cannes Film Festival in the year 1979 He was also the member of the jury at the Berlin International Film Festival that was held in the year 1984

Jules Dassin Detailed Biography -

He was born in a family of Russian-Jewish barber in Middletown, Connecticut with seven other sibblings. Dassin began his career as a Yiddish actor with the ARTEF (Yiddish Proletarian Theater) company in New York. However he achieved recognition for his noir films including Brute Force, The Naked City, and Thieves' Highway in the 1940s. His film namely Never on Sunday was released in the year 1960 thereby bestowing upon him with the music Academy Award (Manos Hadjidakis, Ta Paidia tou Peiraia). Also at the Cannes Film Festival the actress of his film won best actress award . To all the people of the contemporary perion he was acknowledged as Philhellen . So much so that the Greek officials used to call him him as a "first generation Greek". Later together with his last wife, Melina Mercouri, he brought about opposition against the Greek military junta. In fact he was a principal supporter of the return of the Elgin Marbles to Athens. For that Jules laid the foundation of the Melina Mercouri Institution . Due to his recent death he missed the opening ceremony of the New Acropolis Museum . Just as Dassin was about to be brought before the House Un-American Activities Committee, producer Darryl F. Zanuck assigned him the screenplay for Night and the City, starring Richard Widmark and Gene Tierney, and sent him to London to begin production on the film. In an interview accompanying The Criterion Collection DVD release, Dassin recalls that Zanuck warned him that this would be his final film for Hollywood, advising him to shoot the most expensive scenes first, so that the studio would be "on the hook," and allow him to complete it. After the film's release, European producers were told that their films would not be allowed to be released in the United States if Dassin was involved in their production. After the release of Night and the City, it would be five years before another film directed by Dassin, now working in France, would be released. During this period he fell into hard times and poverty and took the job largely because he needed work. The resulting film, the French language noir classic Rififi, opened to rave reviews and box-office success, famously regarded by influential French film critic and later director François Truffaut as the 'best noir he had ever seen'. He was also very successful in her personal life. Dassin met and became romantically involved with Melina Mercouri , the Greek actress , whom he married, but they had no children. The couple made Pote tin Kyriaki (Never on Sunday) in the year 1960 and its Broadway musical adaptation, Illya Darling, in the year 1967. The film helped Dassin to acquire Academy Award nominations for Best Director and the Best Original Screenplay. Dassin and Mercouri together made Topkapi and Phaedra. Dassin gave the direction of Bette Davis in the year 1952 Broadway musical revue Two's Company. Jules Dassin had two children from his marriage to Beatrice Launer. Later his son Joe Dassin (1938 - 1980)became a popular French singer until his death.Julie Dassin, the actress is the name of her daughter.