Jean-Pierre Aumont, 1911-2001

Jean-Pierre Aumont standing behind Diana Ross in a scene from Mahogany (1975)

Today marks the birth anniversary of French actor Jean-Pierre Aumont, who was born on this day in 1911. Aumont was one of those Frenchmen who came over to the US during World War II, and that knowledge of English enabled him to get parts in various Hollywood and British movies set in France (or requiring somebody suitably French) over the years. Among them are Lili, John Paul Jones (as King Louis XVI), the above Mahogany, and at the end of his career, Jefferson in Paris.

Of course, Aumont also made a lot of movies in French in his native France, and that's probably where I first came to recognize the name. In François Truffaut's Day for Night, Aumont plays Alexandre, the actor who portrays the father in the film-within-a-film. It's one of the best movies about the movies you'll see, and I strongly recommend it if you haven't seen it before.

(And if you're wondering why I used a screenshot from Mahogany, it's because I've got that one at hand on DVD and not any of the others.)