‘Shrek’ and ‘500 Days Of Summer’ actor Jean-Paul Vignon dies aged 89

Jean-Paul Vignon, the French vocalist and actor, has died aged 89.

His family have confirmed that he passed away from liver cancer on March 22 in Beverly Hills.

With a career spanning eight decades, Vignon was best known for his voice acting and narration in some major films and television programmes.

Born on January 30 1935, Vignon began his career in France where he performed in a Parisian cabaret, and starred in French films such as Asphalte and Les Promesses Dangereuses.

He debuted in the US in 1963 when he opened for comic, actor and filmmaker Woody Allen, at The Blue Angel in New York.

Vignon went on to make multiple appearances on CBS variety shows in the US, where he also sang a duet with Liza Minnelli.

Later in his career, Vignon appeared on teen sitcom Gilmore Girls, hospital drama Days Of Our Lives and detective series The Rockford Files.

His voice can also be heard in 2001 Dreamworks animation, Shrek, as one of the Merrymen who live in Sherwood Forest and perform a song for the movie’s main characters.

He also features as a narrator in the 2009 romcom starring Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, 500 Days Of Summer.

Alongside his impressive acting career, Vignon was known for being a successful singer. In a 1994 profile of him by the Los Angeles Times, he was described to have “fulfilled the American image of the romantic, singing Frenchman.”

The profile continued: “Ironically, rather than compare his voice to such renowned Gallic crooners as Maurice Chevalier and Gilbert Bécaud, Vignon says that he has a Bobby Darin kind of voice, able to sing fast and passionate or gentle and slow.”

In 1966, he married King Of Kings and How The West Was Won actor, Brigid Bazlen. The couple were married for two years, divorcing in 1968. Bazlen, who retired from acting in her late 20s, died from cancer in 1989 at the age of 44.

Vignon is survived by his longtime partner Suzie Summers, along with his daughters and granddaughters.

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