Jules Dassin

Director: Jules Dassin

Born: Dec 18, 1911 in Middletown, Connecticut
Died: Mar 31, 2008
Occupation: Director, Writer, Actor
Active: '40s-'70s
Major Genres: Drama, Comedy
Career Highlights: Rififi, Night and the City, Topkapi
First Major Screen Credit: Reunion in France (1942)

Biography

One of the most defiantly visible survivors of the Hollywood Blacklist was American director Jules Dassin. Following high school in the Bronx and drama school in Europe (paying his own way), Dassin made his stage debut at age 25 with the Yiddish Theatre in New York. In Hollywood, Dassin worked his way up to a directorial spot at MGM's short subjects unit, where he handled a brilliant 20-minute adaptation of Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart (1941). This led to a promotion to features like Nazi Agent (1942), Reunion in France (1942) and The Canterville Ghost (1944). From MGM, Dassin went to work for producer Mark Hellinger at Universal Studios, where he turned out two full-blooded crime classics: Brute Force (1947) and The Naked City (1948). Unfortunately, the late 1940s were difficult times for anyone with even the slightest leftist political leanings. After being identified as a communist by director Ed Dmytryk during a House UnAmerican Activities Committee hearing, Dassin found himself completely shut out by Hollywood. The last 1950s film which Dassin directed for a major studio was 20th Century-Fox's Night and the City, which was shot in London. Then he moved to France, where he helmed one of the most influential "crime caper" movies ever made, Rififi (1954). So successful was this melodrama that it spawned numerous rip-offs (Rififi in Tokyo was one of the most blatant) and parodies, including Dassin's own Topkapi (1964). Operating in Greece by 1959, Dassin directed his second wife Melina Mercouri in Never On Sunday (1960), a robust comedy about a joyous prostitute; Mercouri's performance was superb enough for viewers to forgive Dassin's own lackluster performance as a stuffy American moralist. Permitted back in the U.S.-studio system in the mid-1960s, Dassin directed Uptight (1968), a black-oriented remake of The Informer which proved beyond doubt that Dassin's alleged "communistic" tendencies were just a bit old hat. Not many of Jules Dassin's later, more personal films (notably an indictment of the Greek junta leaders, The Rehearsal [1974]) were seen in America, but the director's reputation, so idiotically maligned in the early 1950s, had been completely restored so far as Hollywood was concerned--even though the man himself chose to shun the U.S. for self-imposed Swiss exile. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Search unanswered questions...

Browse: Unanswered questions | Most-recent questions | Reference library

Wikipedia: Jules Dassin

Top

Jules Dassin

Born	Julius Dassin December 18, 1911(1911-12-18) Middletown, Connecticut, United States
Died	March 31, 2008 (aged 96) Athens, Greece
Spouse(s)	Beatrice Launer (1933–1962) Melina Mercouri (1966–1994)

Jules Dassin (December 18, 1911 – March 31, 2008), born Julius Dassin, was an American film director. He was a subject of the Hollywood blacklist, and subsequently moved to France where he revived his career.

1 Early life
2 Career
3 Personal life
- 3.1 Affiliation with Greece
4 Awards and honors
5 Filmography
6 References
7 External links

Early life

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.

Career

Dassin quickly became better known for his noir films Brute Force, The Naked City, and Thieves' Highway in the 1940s, which helped him to become "one of the leading American filmmakers of the postwar era."^[1]

Dassin's most influential film was the heist movie Rififi, which inspired a genre of movies including Ocean's Eleven and Mission: Impossible.^[1]

Personal life

Jules Dassin was married to:

Béatrice Launer, a Hungarian-born violinist (aka Beatrice Launer-Dassin). They married in 1933 and divorced in 1962. Their children were Joseph Ira Dassin (1938–1980), a popular French singer in the 1970s, songwriter Richelle "Rickie" Dassin (born 1940), and actress-singer Julie Dassin (born 1944 and also known as Julie D.).[1]

Melina Mercouri, Greek actress and former wife of Panos Harokopos. They married in 1966.

Affiliation with Greece

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.^[2]

Upon his death, the Greek prime minister, Costas Karamanlis, released a statement: "Greece mourns the loss of a rare human being, a significant artist and true friend. His passion, his relentless creative energy, his fighting spirit and his nobility will remain unforgettable."^[1]

Awards and honors

For his 1956 film Rififi, Dassin earned the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival.^[1] 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).^[2]^[3]

Filmography

Year	Film	Credited as
Year	Film	Director	Producer	Writer	Actor	Role
1941	The Tell-Tale Heart	Yes
1942	Nazi Agent	Yes
	The Affairs of Martha	Yes
	Reunion in France	Yes
1943	Young Ideas	Yes
1944	The Canterville Ghost	Yes
1946	Two Smart People	Yes
1946	A Letter for Evie	Yes
1947	Brute Force	Yes
1948	The Naked City	Yes
1949	Thieves' Highway	Yes
1950	Night and the City	Yes
1955	Rififi	Yes		Yes	Yes	Cesar le Milanais
1957	He Who Must Die	Yes		Yes
1959	The Law	Yes		Yes
1960	Never on Sunday	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Homer Thrace
1962	Phaedra	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Christo
1964	Topkapi	Yes	Yes		Yes	Turkish cop
1966	10:30 P.M. Summer	Yes	Yes	Yes
1968	Survival 1967	Yes	Yes
1968	Up Tight!	Yes	Yes	Yes
1970	Promise at Dawn	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Ivan Mozzhukhin
1974	The Rehearsal	Yes		Yes	Yes
1978	A Dream of Passion	Yes	Yes	Yes
1980	Circle of Two	Yes

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Luther, Claudia (April 1, 2008). "Blacklisted Director Jules Dassin Dies at 96". The Times. http://www.zap2it.com/celebrities/news/zap-julesdassinobit,0,5046745.story.
^ ^a ^b (Greek) Skai News, Απεβίωσε ο Ζυλ Ντασέν (Jules Dassin died), English (machine translation) Retrieved on 2008-04-01.
^ Internet Movie Database, Pote tin Kyriaki (1960), Retrieved on 2008-04-01.

External links

v • d • e The films of Jules Dassin

1940s	The Tell-Tale Heart • Nazi Agent • The Affairs of Martha • Reunion in France • Young Ideas • The Canterville Ghost • Two Smart People • A Letter for Evie • Brute Force • The Naked City • Thieves' Highway

1950s	Night and the City • Rififi • He Who Must Die • The Law

1960s	Never on Sunday • Phaedra • Topkapi • 10:30 P.M. Summer • Hamilchama al hashalom • Up Tight!

1970s	Promise at Dawn • The Rehearsal • A Dream of Passion

1980s	Circle of Two

Persondata
NAME	Dassin, Jules
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Dassin, Julius
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Film director
DATE OF BIRTH	1911-12-18
PLACE OF BIRTH	Middletown, Connecticut, United States
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Donate to Wikimedia

Learn More

	Topkapi (1964 Album by Manos Hadjidakis)
	Manos Hadjidakis (Actor, Drama/Romance)
	Rascel-Fifi (1958 Film)

	Jules into kilojules? Read answer...
	Did Jules Verne have siblings? Read answer...
	What is jules verne dads name? Read answer...

Help us answer these

	What Does Julee mean?
	When did joe dassin had his first song?
	What is jules coulomb?

Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:

Copyrights:

		Director. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved. Read more
		Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Jules Dassin". Read more