Jacques Dutronc

Jacques Dutronc was a musician of substantial repute and critical acclaim before he entered the acting profession. He was a member of the rock group El Toro et les Cyclones and wrote songs for his wife, Françoise Hardy, a famous French singer. He pursued a successful solo career as a singer, songwriter, and guitarist, and then dove into film, eventually garnering a César for his riveting portrayal of artist Vincent Van Gogh in the 1991 film "Van Gogh." Dutronc has been nominated for several other performances, including his role as Battistelli in "Place Vendôme," a diamond smuggling thriller starring French star Catherine Deneuve. Dutronc's varied career has brought him into collaboration with many other icons of French cinema, including French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard in the film "Every Man for Himself." Here Dutronc played a brooding, depressed filmmaker named Godard, in an obvious nod to the real-life director's own obsessive introspection. Dutronc also contributed as a composer to many of the films he starred in, and his songs have appeared on numerous other film sound tracks.