Star Lost Jean-Paul Vignon has died. The 89-year-old Shrek and 500 Days of Summer star had been fighting liver cancer.
Jean-Paul Vignon, who was in SERENITY and 500 Days of Summer, has died. He was 89 years old.
After a long battle with liver cancer, the French singer and actor died.
His family told everyone on Wednesday that Vignon had died in Beverly Hills, California.
It was most famous that the US actor did the voice of one of Robin Hood’s Merry Men in Shrek and read the script for the romantic comedy 500 Days of Summer.
Vignon started his career in France in the 1950s, where he was in a cabaret show and a few French movies.
He eventually went to New York, where in 1963 he opened for comedian Woody Allen.
Later, Vignon had a successful acting career in the US for eight decades.
Some of his most famous roles were as Andre on Gilmore Girls and as Monsieur Lazare on Days of Our Lives.
Vignon was also a successful singer in addition to being an actor.
After signing with Columbia Records, his first album, Because I Love You, came out in the US in 1964.
Three years later, he had a small part in the WWII movie The Devil’s Brigade, which starred William Holden and Cliff Robertson.
In a 1994 article about Vignon, the Los Angeles Times said that he “fulfilled the American image of the romantic, singing Frenchman.”
But Vignon could “sing fast and passionate or gentle and slow,” which wasn’t true of many of his contemporaries.
The actor also went on The Ed Sullivan Show several times and sang a duet with Liza Minnelli.
He also appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and Merv Griffin’s daytime show often.
Even better, Vignon hosted a Canadian TV show called The Sensuous Man, which was made by Dick Clark. At the end of each week, he would relax in a bathtub.
Born on January 30, 1935, in Dire Dawa, an Ethiopian port city, Vignon grew up in Avignon, France.
He studied law at the Sorbonne in Paris and medicine in Marseille for a short time before deciding to make music his full-time job.
His early career took a short break while he did 17 months of mandatory military service.
His daughter, Marguerite Vignon Gaul, and his long-term partner, Suzie Summers, will miss him.
His first marriage to the late actress Brigid Bazlen gave him a daughter named Lucy Brank and two grandchildren.
