She died at the age of 89 after a long battle with liver cancer. He was a star in Shrek and 500 Days of Summer.
Movie star Jean-Paul Vignon has died at the age of 89. He was in SHREK and 500 Days of Summer.
The French singer and actor died after a long battle with liver cancer.
Tuesday, Vignon’s family told everyone that he had died in Beverly Hills, California, on Wednesday.
The American actor was best known for his roles as one of Robin Hood’s Merry Men in Shrek and as the voice of the narrator in 500 Days of Summer.
From the 1950s to the 1960s, Vignon worked mostly in France, where he was in a cabaret show and a number of movies.
In the end, he went to New York, where in 1963 he opened for stand-up comedian Woody Allen.
It would take Vignon eight decades of successful acting work in the United States.
He played Andre on Gilmore Girls and Monsieur Lazare on Days of Our Lives, which are both well-known roles.
Besides being an actor, Vignon was also a successful singer.
He signed with Columbia Records and put out his first album in the US in 1964. It was called “Because I Love You.”
After three years, he had a small part in the WWII movie The Devil’s Brigade, which starred William Holden and Cliff Robertson.
The Los Angeles Times wrote an article about Vignon in 1994 and said that he “fulfilled the American image of the romantic, singing Frenchman.”
Though Vignon wasn’t like many other singers of the time, he could “sing fast and passionate or gentle and slow.”
Besides that, the actor went on The Ed Sullivan Show several times and sang a duet with Liza Minnelli.
He also often appeared on Merv Griffin’s daytime show and The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
Vignon even hosted a Canadian TV show called The Sensuous Man, which was made by Dick Clark. At the end of each week, he would lie down in a bathtub.
Vignon was born in the port city of Dire Dawa, Ethiopia, on January 30, 1935. He grew up in Avignon, France.
He studied medicine for a short time in Marseille and law for a short time at the Sorbonne in Paris before deciding to make music his full-time job.
After 17 months of mandatory military service, his early career stopped for a short time.
Veint has a daughter named Marguerite Vignon Gaul and a long-term partner named Suzie Summers.
He also has two grandchildren and a daughter named Lucy Brank from his first marriage to the late actress Brigid Bazlen.
