Gigi star Louis Jourdan has died at his Los Angeles home aged 93.
Born in Marseilles, Louis Jourdan began his career acting in French films before being lured to the US.
Often seen in roles that capitalized on his Gallic charm, Louis Jourdan described himself as Hollywood’s “French cliché”.
His later years saw him play evil villains, including in the 1983 Bond film Octopussy.
Louis Jourdan died at his home in Los Angeles, his official biographer Olivier Minne said.
“He embodied French elegance and Hollywood offered him the parts to go with that,” he told the AFP news agency.
Multi-Oscar winning 1958 movie Gigi was one of the biggest films of the 1950s.
Other key roles included a part in the Alfred Hitchcock’s 1947 film The Paradine Case, and with Grace Kelly in The Swan.
Louis Jourdan’s early career in France was interrupted by World War Two. He refused to star in Nazi propaganda films and joined the resistance.
In 2010 Louis Jourdan was given France’s top award, the Legion D’Honneur.
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[googlead tip=”patrat_mic” aliniat=”stanga”]Gerard Depardieu, the famous French actor gave quite the show on Tuesday in a CityJet flight from Paris to Dublin when he reacted to the news he would not be allowed to use a bathroom until the plane was taking off by urinating on the plane’s carpet in full view of the fellow passengers.
The story surfaced on Wednesday morning, when an eyewitness, Daniele, who was among the 127 passengers on board the Air France jet, went to the French radio station Europe 1 and recounted Gerard Depardieu‘s urinary performance.
Gerard Depardieu urinated on the plane's carpet in full view of the fellow passengers.
Daniele said that Gerard Depardieu begged a flight attendant to let him in the bathroom, saying “Je veux pisser, je veux pisser,” (“I need to piss, I need to piss”) repeatedly.
The cabin crew asked the actor to wait 15 minutes for the plane to reach its cruising altitude and told him to remain seated during takeoff. Depardieu, who appeared inebriated, unzipped his trousers and “stood up and did it (urinated) on the ground,” according to the eyewitness.
“There and then he did it on the floor…” the witness said.
“No one said anything. It all happened with courtesy.”
[googlead tip=”vertical_mediu” aliniat=”dreapta”] After Gerard Depardieu relieved himself, the plane returned to its gate, where a grounds crew reportedly spent two hours cleaning up the mess.
“You could tell he’d been drinking,” the disgusted passenger claimed.
The jet was forced to return to the gate and was delayed for a further two hours as ground crew cleaned up the mess.
Air France confirmed the incident took place in a statement to national TV station TF1, but said it was unclear what or whether action would be taken against the movie actor as the flight was operated by City Jet, a subsidiary of the national carrier based in Ireland.
Gerard Depardieu, 62, arguably France’s most famous living actor, has enjoyed a career spanning four decades and well over a hundred films. He is best known outside France for the film “Green Card,” for which he won a Golden Globe best actor award.
Gerard Depardieu, who runs a vineyard when he isn’t acting, has a reputation for drunken antics. In 2009, he literally beat up a car near his home — smashing the windshield with his fist — and in 1990 was convicted of drunk driving.[googlead tip=”lista_mica” aliniat=”stanga”]
The actor’s turn in the role of public urinator is just the latest instance of what seems to be a growing trend: peeing-on-a-plane stories. A drunk skier may have peed on a sleeping 11-year-old last week and, in June, a drunk Jetstar passenger relieved himself in the aisle of a Singapore-bound jet.
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