Jess Hahn

Jess Hahn was born on Oct 29, 1921 in USA. Jess Hahn's big-screen debut came with Poison Ivy directed by Bernard Borderie in 1953, strarring Le marin-geôlier (as Jess Hann). Jess Hahn is known for L'île mystérieuse directed by Juan Antonio Bardem, Omar Sharif stars as Le capitaine Nemo and Gérard Tichy as Cyrus Smith. The upcoming new movie Jess Hahn plays is La galette du roi which will be released on Jan 29, 1986.

Indiana-born Jess Hahn never played in an American movie, at least shot on American soil. On the other hand, this friendly giant with a nice sense of humor was a fixture in French movies where he often landed roles as a tough gangster or a Yankee (whether an army officer, a C.I.A./F.B.I. agent or an expatriated John Doe). Adored by French and (unfortunately) by campy Italian directors, he was in more than ninety movies and appeared twenty-odd times on French television. He could have made it in art film thanks to his wonderful performance as the tramp in Eric Rohmer's "Le Signe du Lion" but was ignored by other "serious-minded" directors. On the contrary, and oddly enough to be sure, the quality of the film he was in declined dramatically after 1966, which was not doing justice to his wonderful screen presence. He also acted in ten theater plays. Whatever the case, the public loved him, although not knowing his name. In the mid seventies, a bit disappointed with his career, he preferred working on his farm near Dinan in Brittany, acting only occasionally. He died in Saint Malo hospital, forgotten by the film profession but not by TV or DVD viewers who still nowadays worship Nénesse from "Les grandes Gueules" or "La Douceur" (quite a misnomer!) from"Cartouche".