Didier Pain

Character actor Didier Pain's fame is largely overshadowed by that of his niece, actor and singer Vanessa Paradis, the chart-topping singer who is also famous for being the wife of Johnny Depp. In spite of this, Pain is a veteran actor with many movie and TV credits under his belt. He first surfaced in the 1980 TV film "Le menage de Caroline," following that with his initial movie appearance, in a crime thriller called "The Telephone Bar," released the same year. The next decade and a half was productive for Pain, and he was a regular presence in domestic movies and TV productions. Occasional roles in higher-profile international releases -- such as the rural period piece "Jean de Florette" and its sequel, "Manon of the Spring" (both 1986) -- helped keep him in demand. He even dropped into the odd Hollywood film, doing a funny cameo as a video camera thief making life miserable for Chevy Chase and his family in the "National Lampoon" production "European Vacation" (1985). As the 1990s wore on, Pain started to retreat from acting and his appearances petered out by the turn of the millennium. Starting in the mid-1990s, he ventured behind the camera, executive producing the films "Élisa" (1995) and "Un amour de sorciére" (1997), both of which starred Paradis.