'Cinema Paradiso' actor Jacques Perrin dies at 80

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Jacques Perrin, a French actor and filmmaker who appeared in scores of films including "Cinema Paradiso" and "The Young Girls of Rochefort" and co-directed "Winged Migration," has died at the age of 80, according to his family.

His son, Mathieu Simonet, sent a statement to AFP announcing the death. "The family has the immense sadness of informing you of the death of filmmaker Jacques Perrin, who died on Thursday, April 21 in Paris. He passed away peacefully."

Perrin was born in Paris in July 1941 and was featured in over 70 films in his career that began in the 1950s.

Perrin landed his first big part in 1961, co-starring with Claudia Cardinale in "Girl with a Suitcase."

Perrin, distinguished for his grey-to-white hair and soothing voice, was regularly cast as a military commander in films such as "The 317th Platoon" in 1965, "Drummer-Crab" in 1977, and "A Captain's Honor" in 1982, all directed by Pierre Schoendoerffer.

In the Oscar-winning film "Cinema Paradiso", Perrin played the mature director Salvatore reminiscing on his upbringing.

Perrin also co-produced around 15 films, including "Z" which won multiple Oscars.

Perrin was a conservationist and co-produced multiple documentaries like "The Monkey Folk," "Microcosmos", and "Himalaya".

Gilles Jacob, the former Cannes Film Festival president, tweeted that "Jacques was pure charm. He succeeded in everything he touched."

Director of "Z" Costa-Gavras stated on franceinfo that Perrin was "a man of great curiosity and also of extreme kindness".

Military personnel paid appreciation to him for his performances as soldiers in Schoendoerffer's films.

The Foreign Legion hailed him as "a great name in cinema, a personality of great humility."