CASSEL, JEAN-PIERRE

born Oct. 27, 1932, Paris original name Jean-pierre Crochon French motion-picture actor and comedian. Cassel was a bit player in movies, television, and on the stage when the American actor and dancer Gene Kelly discovered him for The Happy Road (1956). Later Cassel, a tall man with an expressive, mobile face, was well received as the comic protagonist of Les Jeux de l'amour (1960; The Games of Love), L'Amant de cinq jours (1961; The Five-Day Lover), Le Caporal epingl (1962; The Vanishing Corporal), and Les Ftes galantes (1965; The Costume Parties). He combined a successful nightclub career with appearances in many international productions, among them Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965), Oh! What a Lovely War (1969), Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie (1972), The Three Musketeers (1973), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), and Prt-a-Porter (1994).