Jean-Paul Vignon, the romantic French singer and actor who wowed audiences on both sides of the Atlantic during an eight-decade career, died March 22 of liver cancer in Beverly Hills, his family announced. It was 89.
Performing a repertoire of contemporary pop and American standards, Vignon made his US debut in 1963 at the famous New York diner The Blue Angel, where he opened for stand-up comic Woody Allen.
Ed Sullivan would soon feature him on his Sunday night CBS variety show in eight appearances—including one in which he sang a duet with a young Liza Minnelli—and he became a regular guest on the Johnny Carson and Merv Griffin programs.
Signed to Columbia Records, Vignon released his first US album, Because I love youin 1964. Three years later, she had a supporting role opposite William Holden and Cliff Robertson in the World War II film The Devil's Brigade.
In a Profile of 1994 in the Los Angeles Times, reporter Robert Koehler noted, “Vignon fulfilled the American image of the romantic, singing Frenchman. Ironically, instead of comparing his voice to famous French crooners like Maurice Chevalier and Gilbert Bécaud, Vignon says he has a Bobby Darin voice, capable of singing fast and passionate or soft and slow.
He went on to play some of the top venues in New York, Miami, Los Angeles and other major cities in the early 1970s, and in '74 he recorded a single, “You,” with Farrah Fawcett, then a relatively unknown young actor and model.
Changing public tastes halted his career, but he hosted a Canadian television show produced by Dick Clark titled The Sensual Man, which ended each week with him lying in a bathtub. And for one Game center in 1973, wore a sweater once worn in a famous photo shoot by Marilyn Monroe and others.
Born on January 30, 1935, in the port of Dire-Daou in the colonial territory of French Somaliland (later known as Djibouti), Vignon was educated in Avignon, France. He briefly studied medicine in Marseille and law at the Sorbonne in Paris, but decided to pursue music full-time.
He was in his early 20s when, on the recommendation of Belgian singer-actor Jacques Brel, he secured a prestigious cabaret job in Paris that would launch his career.
The baritone made his on-screen debut as the star of the 1956 film Les Promesses Dangereusesthis was followed by a performance opposite Francoise Arnoul in the romantic drama asphalt (1959).
Meanwhile, he had signed as a singer with France's Disques Vogue, which aimed to develop him as an artist along the lines of such wildcards as Charles Trenet (his idol), Yves Montand and Charles Aznavour. His first album was 1957's Autobiography Djibouti.
His career in France began to slow down after he served 17 months of compulsory military service, but after opening for Edith Piaf and appearing on the French ship Liberté in front of such celebrities as Ernie Kovacs, Edie Adams and Carol Burnett, he decided to try his luck in the United States States.
As he wrote in his 2018 memoir, From Ethiopia to Utopia“My adventurous spirit told me: 'Marco Polo did not hesitate to go to China, Henry Morton Stanley did not hesitate to explore Central Africa and find Dr. Livingstone, Christopher Columbus did not hesitate to sail west to discover America… it is your turn to discover the United States.”
After a years-long career, he returned to the Los Angeles cabaret scene in 1993, spurred on by pop singers such as Harry Connick Jr., Michael Feinstein and Tony Bennett, and his smash hit “Unforgettable,” which paired the late Nat King Cole . and his daughter Natalie. He would remain active into his 80s with appearances at Feinstein's, Vitello's and the Catalina Jazz Club.
Along the way he would also appear in shows like The Rockford Archives, Hotel, Falcon Crest, Law LA, Columbus, Days of our Lives and Gilmore Girls; voice of one of the Merry Men Shrek (2001); and they narrate the romantic comedy 500 days of summer (2009).
Meanwhile, his company, Côte d'Azur Productions, provided French audiences with translations and overdubs of Scarface and other American films.
Survivors include his longtime partner, Suzie Summers; daughters Marguerite Vignon Gaul (from his marriage to the late American actress Brigid Bazlen) and Lucy Brank. and granddaughters Leah and Hannah.
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
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