Octopussy's Kamal Khan dies aged 93
He faced off against James Bond. He was Dracula on television, and he’s probably best known for his starring role in Gigi. Louis Jourdan, who enjoyed a long and varied career in films and TV, has died at the age of 93.
Born Louis Gendre in Marseille, he at first worked for his parents in the hotels they ran in the South of France, before heading to Paris to study theatre. He got an early screen role in 1939 in Le Corsaire, but the film went unfinished because of the encroaching World War II. During the conflict and the German occupation of his home, Jourdan and his parents were involved with the resistance movement, though he also found time to appear in several movies that saw the projector’s light after the occupation ended. David O. Selznick saw his work there, and signed him to a contract that found him travelling to Hollywood to appear in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Paradine Case in 1947. Despite a seemingly auspicious start, his career struggled early on and in 1950, Selznick sold his contract to Darryl F. Zanuck, fore whom he continued to work for several years.
His big break finally arrived in 1958 with the movie musical Gigi that had him as playboy Gaston, the man who falls for Leslie Caron’s title character. Though it would help make him a star, he didn’t like the role’s stereotypical exploration of French charmers. “That ooh-la-la, conventional, embarrassing character," he told the Associated Press in 1965. "I'm proud to be a Frenchman, but I resent the image people have of the stupid, continental charmer. Against that type of role I fight pitilessly."
Despite his regrets, the film helped boost his profile and he went on to appear in a variety of movies such as The V.I.P.s, Young Rebel, Swamp Thing and the 1983 Bond outing Octopussy, playing the villainous Kamal Khan opposite Roger Moore’s 007. His final film role was in 1992’s Year Of The Comet. On TV, he notched up a variety of roles on shows including Columbo, Charlie’s Angels, Vega$ and Hotel, and played Count Dracula for a 1978 BBC TV movie.
He married his wife Berthe in 1946 and the pair enjoyed a quiet, longstanding marriage until she died last year. Their happiness was only marred by the tragic death of their son, Louis Jr., from a dug overdose in 1981. Jourdan, who received the French Legion Of Honor in 2010, died after a long period of illness, at his home in Beverly Hills on Saturday. “Very sad to hear Louis Jourdan has died,” Moore wrote on Twitter. “Many happy memories of filming Octopussy together.”
Source Empire News http://ift.tt/1Fg1xbi
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