Born Julius Dassin in Middletown, CT. Gained experience in theater and radio in New York before going to work in Hollywood in 1940, first with RKO (as assistant director) and then with MGM. Dassin hit his stride in the late 1940s with such dynamic (and still well-regarded) film noir melodramas as BRUTE FORCE (1947) and THE NAKED CITY (1948). After being blacklisted (he was one of the "names" named by Edward Dmytryk to the HUAC in 1952), he moved to Europe, where he scored his greatest international successes with the French-produced RIFIFI (1954) and the then-scandalous NEVER ON SUNDAY (1960), starring his second wife Melina Mercouri and Dassin himself as her leading man because he couldn't afford an established American star. He followed these with two more films starring Mercouri: PHAEDRA (1962) and TOPKAPI (1964). For the most part, his later films -- like UP TIGHT (1968), an ill-conceived black remake of John Ford's 1935 classic THE INFORMER -- were disappointing and inconclusive. In 1968, Dassin was nominated for two Tony® Awards: as Best Director (Musical) and as author of the book of Best Musical nominee Ilya, Darling, a musical version of his film NEVER ON SUNDAY (1960). Dassin's son Joseph (1938-1980) became one of France's most popular singers, with hits such as "Bip Bip", "L'Êté Indien" and "Aux Champs-Élysées." His daughter, Julie Dassin, was an actress in the late 1960s and early 1970s. After Mercouri's death in 1994, Dassin focused on her main unrealized goal while she was Greece's culture minister: trying to persuade the British Museum to return the Elgin Marbles, a large collection of sculptures taken from the Parthenon by a Scottish diplomat nearly 200 years ago.  Nominated for Directing 1960: POTE TIN KRYAKI (NEVER ON SUNDAY)  Nominated for Writing (Best Story and Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen) 1960: POTE TIN KRYAKI (NEVER ON SUNDAY) 2 nominations