Jules Dassin
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Jules Dassin (born Julius Dassin on December 18, 1911, in Middletown, Connecticut) is an American film director. He is most known for his films Night and the City (1950) and Du Rififi Chez les Hommes (American title: Rififi) (1955), and as a survivor of the Hollywood blacklist of that time.
One of eight children of a Russian-Jewish barber, Dassin started as a Yiddish actor with the ARTEF company in New York, but became well-known for his film noir films Brute Force, The Naked City and Thieves' Highway in the 1940s. Just as Dassin was about to be brought before the House Unamerican Activities Committee, producer Darryl F. Zanuck assigned him the screenplay for Night and the City, 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 were 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. In 1955, the film noir classic Du rififi chez les hommes opened to rave reviews.
Dassin met and became romantically involved with Greek actress Melina Mercouri, whom he married. The couple made Pote tin Kyriaki (Never on Sunday) in 1960. The film earned Dassin a nomination for the Academy Award for Directing and the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay. Dassin and Mercouri went on to make Topkapi and Phaedra.
His son, Joe Dassin, was a popular French singer until his untimely death in 1980. Jules Dassin's daughter is the actress Julie Dassin.