'Cinema Paradiso' Actor Jacques Perrin Dies at 80

French actor and filmmaker Jacques Perrin got his first leading role starring alongside Claudia Cardinale in 'Girl with a Suitcase' in 1961. Eric Feferberg AFP/File
French actor and filmmaker Jacques Perrin got his first leading role starring alongside Claudia Cardinale in 'Girl with a Suitcase' in 1961. Eric Feferberg AFP/File
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'Cinema Paradiso' Actor Jacques Perrin Dies at 80

French actor and filmmaker Jacques Perrin got his first leading role starring alongside Claudia Cardinale in 'Girl with a Suitcase' in 1961. Eric Feferberg AFP/File
French actor and filmmaker Jacques Perrin got his first leading role starring alongside Claudia Cardinale in 'Girl with a Suitcase' in 1961. Eric Feferberg AFP/File

French actor and filmmaker Jacques Perrin, who starred in dozens of films including "Cinema Paradiso" and "The Young Girls of Rochefort" and co-directed "Winged Migration", has died at the age of 80, his family told AFP.

"The family has the immense sadness of informing you of the death of filmmaker Jacques Perrin, who died on Thursday, April 21 in Paris. He passed away peacefully," they announced in a statement sent to AFP by his son, Mathieu Simonet.

Born in Paris on July 13, 1941, Perrin appeared in more than 70 films in a long career spanning from the 1950s to the present day, AFP said.

Equally at home in French and Italian cinema, Perrin got his first leading role starring alongside Claudia Cardinale in "Girl with a Suitcase" in 1961.

Familiar to cinemagoers for his grey-to-white hair and soft voice, Perrin was frequently cast as a military officer and was known for "The 317th Platoon" in 1965, "Drummer-Crab" in 1977 and "A Captain's Honor" in 1982, all three directed by Pierre Schoendoerffer.

He also starred opposite Catherine Deneuve in the Jacques Demy musicals "The Young Girls of Rochefort" and "Donkey Skin".

Among his best-known later roles, Perrin played the adult filmmaker Salvatore reflecting on his childhood in the Oscar-winning "Cinema Paradiso".

Perrin was also co-producer of some 15 films, including "Z" (1969), which won Oscars for best foreign picture and best film editing, and "The Chorus" (2004), directed by his nephew Christophe Barratier.

The latter was a big hit in France, selling 8.6 million tickets at the box office.

- Environmentalist -
Perrin's final film role -- in the environmental thriller "Goliath," released in March -- reflected his deep interest in the natural world.

A committed conservationist, he co-produced several documentaries, including "The Monkey Folk," "Microcosmos" and "Himalaya".

He later also co-directed others including the Oscar-nominated "Winged Migration" (2001) and "Oceans", which won the Cesar for best documentary film in 2011.

"Jacques was pure charm. He succeeded in everything he touched," tweeted former Cannes Film Festival president Gilles Jacob.

"He is one of the most subtle, most interesting French producers," "Z" director Costa-Gavras said on franceinfo, saluting the memory "of a man of great curiosity and also of extreme kindness".

"I admired Jacques Perrin, and then I had the chance to shoot him, his talent, his availability, his kindness meant that after filming I admired him even more," Xavier Beauvois, who directed him in "Le Petit Lieutenant", said on Twitter.

His roles as a soldier in Schoendoerffer's films also prompted tributes from the military.

"The 317th section has lost its leader. The armies salute the memory of Jacques Perrin, an emblematic figure of French cinema to whom we were intimately linked," tweeted the French army chief of staff General Thierry Burkhard.

The Foreign Legion also hailed him as "a great name in cinema, a personality of great humility".



With the Box Office Down, James Gunn Predicts Summer of ‘Superman’ to the Rescue 

Actor David Corenswet, promoting the movie "Superman", poses during a Warner Bros presentation at CinemaCon, the official convention of Cinema United, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, April 1, 2025. (Reuters)
Actor David Corenswet, promoting the movie "Superman", poses during a Warner Bros presentation at CinemaCon, the official convention of Cinema United, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, April 1, 2025. (Reuters)
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With the Box Office Down, James Gunn Predicts Summer of ‘Superman’ to the Rescue 

Actor David Corenswet, promoting the movie "Superman", poses during a Warner Bros presentation at CinemaCon, the official convention of Cinema United, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, April 1, 2025. (Reuters)
Actor David Corenswet, promoting the movie "Superman", poses during a Warner Bros presentation at CinemaCon, the official convention of Cinema United, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, April 1, 2025. (Reuters)

The 2025 box office has been hit with a deficit. Can the James Gunn-dubbed “summer of ‘Superman’” save it?

Warner Bros. showed off a diverse and starry slate of its upcoming films on Tuesday — but the night was carried on the shoulders of Clark Kent.

“I really do believe in this movie. And I do believe that there is a lack of human kindness, or at least a degradation of human kindness,” Gunn said. “This is a movie that celebrates kindness and human love.”

At the annual CinemaCon convention and trade show in Las Vegas, Gunn — the director and writer of the first film in the new iteration of the connected DC Universe — also brought out its stars, who gushed over their experience making the film.

“It’s a great honor to play a role that exists so clearly in the public consciousness, to the point where everyone I think, even if you haven’t seen a film or read a comic, you sort of know what the Superman symbol means and you know what it stands for,” said David Corenswet, adding that he hopes to “illuminate something new about the character, or even just bring the beloved character to a new audience.”

Corenswet was joined onstage by Rachel Brosnahan, who plays Lois Lane, and Nicholas Hoult, who plays Lex Luther.

“James makes a family out of every set,” Brosnahan said. “The set is full of people who want to be there, who love making these movies. And it’s such a joy to come to work every day. As many of you have probably heard from other people, it’s not always like that.”

Gunn was announced to direct the film in 2023 shortly after he and Peter Safran became co-chairmen and co-CEOs of DC Studios.

“We appreciate and share your passion for this art form,” Safran told a room full of theater owners. “It’s the fulcrum of our ambitious DC Studios slate and it’s what inspired James to shoot all over the world and push filmmaking technology to its limits, to propel moviegoers out of their homes into your theaters.”

The film will be released theatrically in July amid a summer of superhero titles, including “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” and “Thunderbolts(asterisk).”

In addition to “Superman,” Warner Bros. teased some of its April releases on the convention’s main stage, like Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” and “A Minecraft Movie,” but they also looked further down the road for 2025.

In a nod to cinephiles, the studio kicked off its presentation by bringing out the stars of Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another,” including Leonardo DiCaprio and Regina Hall. The film is set to hit theaters in September.

“I’ve been wanting to work with Paul for over, gosh, almost 20 years now. He’s one of the most unique talents of our time,” DiCaprio said. “With this film, he’s tapped into something politically and culturally that is brewing beneath our psyche. But at the same time, it’s an incredibly epic movie and has such scope and scale.”

Director Joseph Kosinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer also treated the audience to an extended sneak peak of “F1,” Brad Pitt’s Formula One racing drama premiering in June.

In addition to Hollywood studios and stars boasting their theatrical menus which they believe will lure audiences to cinemas, the annual convention is also a time to discuss current industry debates, like how long movies should stay in theaters and the extent to which studios should get into production with streaming companies.