Jacques Bergerac (Wikipedia)
Jacques Bergerac was born in 1927 and was a French actor who later became a business executive with Revlon.
Jacques Bergerac was born in 1927 in Biarritz, France. He was recruited by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios while a law student in Paris at the age of 25.
Bergerac met and married Ginger Rogers with whom he appeared in Twist of Fate(1954) (also known as Beautiful Stranger). He then appeared as Armand Duval in a television production of Camille for Kraft Television Theatre, opposite Signe Hasso. He played the Comte de Provence in Jean Delannoy‘s film, Marie Antoinette Queen of France.
In Strange Intruder (1956), he shared the screen with Edmund Purdom and Ida Lupinoand in Les Girls (1957), he played the second male lead. He also appeared in Gigi(1958), Thunder in the Sun (1959), the cult horror film The Hypnotic Eye (1960) and A Global Affair (1964). In 1957, he received the Golden Globe Award for Foreign Newcomer.
He appeared in a few more films and on television including Batman, 77 Sunset Strip, Alfred Hitchcock Presents (3 episodes), The Lucy Show, Get Smart, The Dick Van Dyke Show and Perry Mason (Season 7, Episode 19).
His last appearance was on an episode of The Doris Day Show in 1969, after which he left show business and became the head of Revlon‘s Paris office and of the Perfumes Balmain company. His younger brother Michel became CEO of Revlon six years later.
He also managed the rugby club Biarritz Olympique from 1980 until 1981.
Bergerac married screen star Ginger Rogers in February 1953, and they divorced in July 1957. In June 1959, he married actress Dorothy Malone in Hong Kong, where she was on location for her 1960 film The Last Voyage. They had daughters Mimi and Diane together, and divorced in December 1964.
He died June 15, 2014, at his home in Anglet, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France.
Jacques Bergerac is an actor whose brief career in Hollywood ran from 1954 to 1969, before he left the industry to become the head of Revlon’s Paris division. He led a truly cosmopolitan existence as an actor, though, beginning with his first film role: a supporting part in the British mystery “Twist of Fate.” The film’s star, Ginger Rogers–the legendary actress who was Fred Astaire’s frequent dance partner/love interest–made Bergerac her fourth husband. In 1957, Bergerac appeared in “Les Girls,” George Cukor’s musical comedy, starring Gene Kelly and Mitzi Gaynor, also wining the Golden Globe for Foreign Newcomer Award that same year. In 1958, Bergerac starred in the French adventure movie “Un homme se penche sur son passé” and then appeared with fellow French natives Leslie Caron and Maurice Chevalier in Vincente Minelli’s musical romantic comedy “Gigi,” which dominated the 1959 Academy Awards, including Best Picture honors. In 1962, Bergerac co-starred with Gordon Mitchell in the Italian action drama “Fury of Achilles,” and in 1965, he returned to Italy to make the comedy “Hard Time for Princes,” co-starring with Joan Collins. On television, Bergerac was reduced to strictly character actor status, with initial appearances on several theater programs and then various comedies and dramas, making his longest run–relatively, at just six episodes–on the crime drama “77 Sunset Strip,” in 1969
