Some more detailed obituaries following the death of Jules Dassin yesterday.

From:
Agence France Presse

Jules Dassin: US cinema prodigy who found refuge in Greece
15 hours ago

ATHENS (AFP) — Veteran US moviemaker Jules Dassin, who died Monday in Athens at the age of 96, was a film noir master who sought exile in Europe after being named during the anti-communist witch-hunts of the 1950s.

Dassin married the legendary Greek actress Melina Mercouri, joined her campaign for the return of Greece’s lost Parthenon marbles and was eventually awarded honorary Greek citizenship.

Born in Middletown, Connecticut in 1911, Dassin earned a reputation as an innovative director and was one of America’s hottest young filmmakers of the 1940s with films such as “Brute Force” (1947) and “Naked City” (1948).

But as an active Communist who never compromised on his beliefs, he was blacklisted at the height of the witch-hunts on leftists unleashed by Senator Joseph McCarthy.

In 1949 Dassin quit the US for Europe, arriving first in London, where he filmed “Night in the City” (1950) starring US actor Richard Widmark and now considered a landmark of the film noir genre.

Moving on to France, he produced “Rififi” (“Du rififi chez les hommes,” 1955), based on a novel by Auguste le Breton, and best remembered for a now-legendary heist scene.

The 32-minute sequence played without dialogue or music, and the safe-cracking scene was so detailed that Paris police are rumoured to have briefly banned the movie for fear it be too instructive to would-be criminals.

Dassin’s first movie in Greece was “He Who Must Die” (“Celui Qui Doit Mourir” 1957), based on “Christ Recrucified” by the renowned Greek novelist Nikos Kazantzakis.

But he would soon have cause to return to the country for good.

In 1960, Dassin made “Never on Sunday” a story about an American in Greece trying to save a kind-hearted prostitute.

The film won an Oscar for Best Song for composer Manos Hadjidakis, and is considered one of the finest movies ever made in Greece.

Dassin himself was nominated for Best Director and Best Script, although in the end he never won an Oscar.

More importantly for Dassin however, the film starred Melina Mercouri, one of Greece’s most adored actresses.

Two years after another of his landmark films, another heist movie “Topkapi” (1964), which won Peter Ustinov an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, Dassin married Mercouri, who also starred in the film.

Merkouri and Dassin never hid their radical politics.

Both were active in helping organise Greek resistance among expatriate politicians and artists in Paris against the right-wing junta that ruled Greece between 1967 and 1974.

After Mercouri retired from film-making she entered politics, rising to become the country’s culture minister in the 1980s.

She made the return of the Parthenon Marbles, taken from Greece in the 19th century and now in the British Museum, a lifelong quest.

Dassin joined her campaign and eventually headed a foundation bearing her name established to secure the marbles’ restitution to Greece.

Mercouri died in 1994. Three years later, the Greek state awarded Dassin honourary citizenship for his efforts in their joint campaign.

In 1978, the Cannes Film Festival awarded him a Golden Palm for “A Dream of Passion,” one of his last films.

In later years, Dassin retained an interest in politics despite advanced age and failing health.

He had two children from his first marriage to violinist Beatrice Launer: Julie and Joe Dassin, a popular singer in 1970s France who died from a heart attack in 1980.

From:
The Guardian

Film Director Jules Dassin Dies at 96
* AP foreign
* Monday March 31 2008

ATHENS, Greece (AP) – American director Jules Dassin, whose Greek wife Melina Mercouri starred in his hit movie “Never on Sunday” and six more of his films, died late Monday at an Athens hospital, officials said. He was 96.

The cause of death was not made public. A spokeswoman for Hygeia hospital said only that he had been treated there the past two weeks.

Dassin, a leftist activist whose more than 20 films also included “Topkapi,” abandoned Hollywood in 1950 during the Communist blacklisting era.

Five years later, he won wide acclaim for “Rififi,” famous for its long heist sequence that was free of dialogue. The movie won him the best director prize at the Cannes Film Festival, where he met Mercouri.

He married the actress-politician in 1966 and settled permanently in Athens. Dassin directed his wife in seven films, including 1960’s “Never on Sunday,” in which she gained international notice for her portrayal of a kindhearted prostitute.

Reacting to news of the director’s death, Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis called Dassin “a first-generation Greek.”

“Greece mourns the loss of a rare human being, a significant artist and a true friend,” Karamanlis said in a statement. “His passion, his relentless creative energy, his fighting spirit and his nobility will remain unforgettable.”

After Mercouri’s death in 1994, Dassin focused on her main unrealized goal while she was Greece’s culture minister: trying to persuade the British Museum to return the Elgin Marbles, a large collection of sculptures taken from the Parthenon by a Scottish diplomat nearly 200 years ago.

“If there is anything I want to be remembered for it is for fulfilling Melina’s dream,” he told The Associated Press in a 1997 interview.

Dassin’s Hollywood credits include “Reunion in France,” a 1942 wartime romance with Joan Crawford and John Wayne; “Brute Force”, a 1947 prison drama starring Burt Lancaster; and the detective thriller “The Naked City” in 1948.

His 1974 film “The Rehearsal” was based on the Greek student rebellions that helped bring down a 1967-74 military junta that had forced Dassin and Mercouri into exile in Paris.

In 1980, Dassin made the Canadian-backed film “Circle of Two,” starring Richard Burton as an aged artist with a romantic fixation on a teenage student, played by Tatum O’Neal. Dassin was disheartened by its weak box office performance and never made another film.

Born Dec. 18, 1911, in Middletown, Conn., to a Jewish barber who emigrated from Russia, Dassin was raised in working-class neighborhoods around New York.

He joined New York’s Yiddish Theater in 1936 and wrote adaptations of theater plays for radio.

After moving to Hollywood, Dassin worked as an assistant to Alfred Hitchcock on “Mr. and Mrs. Smith.” A year later, he directed his first film, “The Tell-Tale Heart” based on an Edgar Allan Poe short story. He moved on to make films at MGM, Universal and 20th Century Fox.

Dassin, who was active in leftist political causes, was denounced by Hollywood contemporaries as being a Communist enough to be placed on the era’s infamous blacklists.

He moved to London in 1950 to shoot his next film, “Night and the City.” Dassin then lived in Italy and France before returning to the cinema with “Rififi.”

After meeting Mercouri, he began to build his career around her.

In 1974, Mercouri gave up acting after being elected to the Greek parliament as a fiery Socialist. She became culture minister in 1981 and served in the post for more than eight years, setting her sights on returning the 2,500-year-old Parthenon sculptures to their homeland.

After his wife’s death, Dassin created the Melina Mercouri Foundation to continue her work. The main goal of the foundation was to push for the creation of a new Acropolis museum big enough to reunite the marbles held in the British Museum with those remaining in Greece.

After repeated delays, the glass and concrete museum at the foot of the Acropolis is set to open to the public in September – with plaster casts replacing the works still displayed in London.

Dassin’s funeral arrangements were not immediately available. He had expressed a wish to be buried alongside Mercouri in central Athens’ First Cemetery.

From:
Daily Telegraph

Jules Dassin, film director, dies aged 96
By Our Foreign Staff
Last Updated: 1:56am BST 01/04/2008

Jules Dassin, the controversial veteran film director who fled the US during the anti-communist witch-hunts of the 1950s, has died aged 96.

Born in Middletown, Connecticut in 1911, he earned a reputation as an innovative director and was one of America’s best young filmmakers with his early work, including the films “Brute Force” (1947) and “Naked City” (1948).

But as an active Communist who never compromised on his beliefs, he was blacklisted at the height of the witch-hunts on Leftists unleashed by US Senator Joseph McCarthy.
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In 1949 Dassin left the US for Europe, arriving first in London, where he filmed “Night in the City” starring the American actor Richard Widmark, who died last week. The film is now considered a landmark of the film noir genre.

After moving to France, he made the 1955 film “Rififi”, which is best known for a 32-minute sequence safe-cracking scene, which features no dialogue or music and was rumoured to have worried police because it was so instructive in its detail that it could have aided thieves.

In 1960, Dassin made “Never on Sunday” – a story about an American in Greece trying to save a kind-hearted prostitute. Dassin was nominated for Best Director and Best Script, but did not win, but composer Manos Hadjidakis won Best Song for his work on the film, which is considered one of the finest movies ever made in Greece.

It was during the filming that he fell in love with Melina Mercouri, the famous Greek actress, and the couple later married.

They helped organise Greek resistance among expatriate politicians and artists in Paris against the Right-wing junta that ruled Greece between 1967 and 1974.

After Mercouri retired from film-making she entered politics, rising to become the country’s culture minister in the 1980s.

She made the return of the Elgin Marbles, which were taken from Greece in the 19th century and are now on display in the British Museum, a lifelong quest.

After Mercouri’s death in 1994, Dassin headed a foundation bearing her name established to secure the marbles’ restitution to Greece and was awarded honorary citizenship for his efforts in 1997.

He had two children from his first marriage to violinist Beatrice Launer.

From:
BBC News

Page last updated at 01:39 GMT, Tuesday, 1 April 2008 02:39 UK
Film director Jules Dassin dies

American film director Jules Dassin has died in an Athens hospital after a short illness, at the age of 96.

Blacklisted in Hollywood after WWII, he went to Europe where he married the late Greek actress and later culture minister Melina Mercouri.

She starred in Mr Dassin’s most famous film, Never on Sunday.

After her death in 1994, Mr Dassin fought to realise her main goal: the return of the Parthenon, or Elgin, marbles from Britain to Greece.

A spokesman for Hygeia hospital in Athens said Mr Dassin had been admitted for treatment two weeks ago.

“Greece grieves the loss of a rare human being, an important creator and a true friend,” Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis said in a statement.

Oscar nominations

Mr Dassin was born in the US state of Connecticut on 18 December 1911.

He worked as an actor and theatre producer before becoming an assistant to film director Alfred Hitchcock.

He was active in leftist politics and in the early 1950s his promising Hollywood career was cut short when he was named as a communist and blacklisted.

He met Ms Mercouri at the Cannes Film Festival in 1955 where he won the best director prize for his film Rififi. Its long heist sequence, without dialogue, became a template for many later crime capers.

He directed his wife in seven films, including 1960’s Never on Sunday in which she played a prostitute with a heart of gold. He received Oscar nominations for best director and screenplay.

Mr Dassin stopped making films in 1980 after Circle of Two starring Richard Burton performed poorly at the box office.

Ms Mercouri was elected to the Greek parliament in 1974 and in 1981 the newly-elected socialist government appointed her culture minister.

After his wife’s death he created the Melina Mercouri Foundation to continue her campaign to have the 2,500-year-old marbles that were stripped from the Parthenon returned to Greece.

“He will be remembered for all his good work and struggles with Melina for his campaign for the return of the marbles, which will continue,” said socialist opposition leader George Papandreou.

From:
New York Times

Jules Dassin, Filmmaker on Blacklist, Dies at 96
By RICHARD SEVERO
Published: April 1, 2008

Jules Dassin, an American director, screenwriter and actor who found success making movies in Europe after he was blacklisted in the United States because of his earlier ties to the Communist Party, died Monday in Athens, where he had lived since the 1970s. He was 96.

A spokeswoman for Hygeia Hospital confirmed his death but did not give a cause, The Associated Press reported.

Mr. Dassin is most widely remembered for films he made after he fled Hollywood in the 1950s, including “Never on Sunday” (1960), with the Greek actress Melina Mercouri, whom he later married; “Topkapi” (1964), with Ms. Mercouri, Peter Ustinov and Maximilian Schell; and the 1954 French thriller “Rififi.”

But before his blacklisting he had also carved out a successful Hollywood career making noir movies like “Brute Force” (1947), a prison drama starring Burt Lancaster and Hume Cronyn; “The Naked City” (1948), an influential New York City police yarn that won Academy Awards for cinematography and editing; and “Thieves’ Highway” (1949), about criminals who try to coerce truckers in California.

Mr. Dassin’s last major effort before his exile was “Night and the City” (1950), a film shot in London starring Richard Widmark (who died last Monday) as a shady but naïve wrestling promoter and Francis L. Sullivan as a predatory nightclub owner. Some critics called it Mr. Dassin’s masterpiece.

“Dassin turned Londontown into a city of busted dreams and nightmare alleys,” Michael Sragow wrote on salon.com in 2000. “He mixed the fantastic and the real with masterly ease.”

The producer Darryl F. Zanuck had assigned the film to Mr. Dassin just as Mr. Dassin was to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee. He never did testify, but testimony by the directors Edward Dmytryk and Frank Tuttle, who recalled Mr. Dassin’s Communist Party membership in the 1930s, was damning enough to sink his career.

Mr. Dassin left the United States for France in 1953 because, he said, he was “unemployable” in Hollywood. In Paris, unable to speak much more than restaurant French when he arrived, he encountered hard times and remained largely unemployed for five years. In need of money, he agreed to direct “Rififi,” a low-budget production about a jewelry heist. A memorable sequence is of the robbery itself, lasting about a half-hour and filmed without music or dialogue.

Mr. Dassin also acted in the movie, under the name Perlo Vita, playing an Italian safe expert. He won a best-director award for the film at the 1955 Cannes Film Festival. By the time he wrote and directed “Never on Sunday,” a comedy about a good-hearted prostitute (Ms. Mercouri), the anti-Communist witch hunt in the United States had been discredited, and he had been accepted again.

Mr. Dassin also had a role in the movie, as a bookish American from — like Mr. Dassin himself — Middletown, Conn., who tries to reform the prostitute. His directing and screenwriting were nominated for Academy Awards.

The movie was a moneymaker and its title song was a hit, though some critics found the script predictable. Ms. Mercouri became Mr. Dassin’s second wife in 1966, two years after he directed her in “Topkapi,” another film about jewel thieves, the prize in this case being gems from the Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul.

Jules Dassin was born in Middletown on Dec. 18, 1911, one of eight children of Samuel Dassin, an immigrant barber from Russia, and the former Berthe Vogel. Shortly after Jules was born, his father moved the family to Harlem. Jules attended Morris High School in the Bronx.

He joined the Communist Party in 1930s, a decision he recalled in 2002 in an interview with The Guardian in London. “You grow up in Harlem where there’s trouble getting fed and keeping families warm, and live very close to Fifth Avenue, which is elegant,” he told the newspaper. “You fret, you get ideas, seeing a lot of poverty around you, and it’s a very natural process.”

He left the party in 1939, he said, disillusioned after the Soviet Union signed a nonaggression pact with Hitler.

In the mid-1930s, Mr. Dassin studied drama in Europe before returning to New York, where he made his debut as an actor in the Yiddish Theater. He also wrote radio scripts.

He went to Hollywood shortly before World War II erupted in Europe and was hired as an apprentice to the directors Alfred Hitchcock and Garson Kanin. Soon he was directing films for MGM, including “Reunion in France,” a Joan Crawford vehicle with John Wayne in which her character comes to believe that her fiancé is a Nazi collaborator.

His later movies were often joint efforts with Ms. Mercouri. They included “He Who Must Die” (1957), about life overtaking a Passion play in a village on Crete; and “La Legge” (1959), a noirish melodrama with Gina Lollobrigida, Marcello Mastroianni and Yves Montand.

One film without Ms. Mercouri was “Up Tight!” (1968), a remake of a John Ford classic, “The Informer,” set in a poor black neighborhood, with a script by its star, Ruby Dee. It was Mr. Dassin’s first film in the United States since he had left.

The year before, Mr. Dassin had directed the Broadway musical comedy “Ilya Darling,” based on “Never on Sunday,” for which Ms. Mercouri won a Tony Award. The couple lived in Manhattan during the run.

The same year, 1967, Ms. Mercouri, an ardent anti-Facist, lost her Greek citizenship for engaging in what Greece’s rightist government called “anti-national activities.” In 1970, Mr. Dassin was accused of sponsoring a plot to overthrow the junta. The charges were later dropped.

When the regime lost power in 1974, he and Ms. Mercouri returned from exile, which had been spent mainly in Paris. Ms. Mercouri entered politics, becoming a member of Parliament and later culture minister. They had homes in Athens and on the Greek island of Spetsai. Ms. Mercouri died in 1994. They had no children.

Mr. Dassin’s first marriage, to Beatrice Launer, from 1933 to 1962, ended in divorce. Their son, Joseph, who became a popular French singer, died in 1980. Mr. Dassin is survived by two other children from his first marriage, Richelle and Julie Dassin, an actress, as well as grandchildren.

Toward the end of his life, Mr. Dassin ran the Melina Mercouri Foundation, which tried to induce the British Museum to return the Elgin Marbles, sculptures taken from the Parthenon nearly 200 years ago. In September, a museum is set to open at the foot of the Acropolis displaying plaster casts of the works.

Mr. Dassin ended his directing career in his late 60s on a disheartened note, when his film “Circle of Two” (1980) — about an aging artist (Richard Burton) who is infatuated with a teenage student (Tatum O’Neal) — did poorly at the box office. Mr. Dassin never made another film.

He had always been demanding of himself and often critical of his own work. In 1962, with his best films largely behind him, Mr. Dassin told Cue magazine: “Of my own films, there’s only one I’ve really liked — ‘He Who Must Die.’ That is, I like what it had to say. But that doesn’t mean I’m completely satisfied with it. I’d do it all over again, if I could.”