Jean-Pierre Aumont (1911–2001)

Jean-Pierre Aumont was born Jean-Pierre Philippe Salomons to a prosperous Jewish family in Paris. His parents were Suzanne Cahen, an actress, and Alexandre Abraham Salomons, the Dutch-born owner of a chain of department stores. His younger brother became a noted French film director under the name François Villiers. Aumont turned to acting at age 16 and enrolled at the Paris Conservatoire. He made his professional stage debut at the age of 19. His big break came in 1934, when Jean Cocteau chose him to play Oedipus in the premiere of La Machine infernale. While Aumont's film and stage career were quickly rising, World War II broke out. He fled the Nazis to the USA, where he worked first in the New York theater, and then went to Hollywood. After making the films Assignment in Brittany and The Cross of Lorraine in 1943, he joined the Free French Forces and served in Tunisia and Italy before landing in Provence with the Allied southern invasion. As an aide-de-camp to General Diego Brosset, commander of the 1st Free French Division, he was wounded but survived the fall of the Jeep that caused Brosset's death on November 20, 1944 at the Rahin bridge in Champagney. For his military service, Aumont received the Légion d'Honneur and the Croix de Guerre. After the war, Aumont quickly resumed his movie career, starring opposite Ginger Rogers in Heartbeat (1946), and as the magician in Lili (1953) with Leslie Caron, among many other roles. As an international film star, he divided his time between Europe and the USA. In the mid-1950s, he also began working in television, appearing in classic works and on several anthology programs. In the 1960s and 1970s, he appeared in musical theater, including Tovarich (with Vivien Leigh), Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, South Pacific, and Gigi. In François Truffaut's movie about movies, Day for Night (1973), Aumont played the charismatic male lead who died during the shooting. He continued to work through the 1990s, appearing in Jefferson In Paris (1995) and The Proprietor (1996), among the last of his 50 films. He also published several bestselling novels and memoirs.