Eddie Constantine

American singer and actor Eddie Constantine was born Edward Israël Constantinowsky on October 29, 1917, in Los Angeles, California. The son of a Russian jeweler father and a Polish mother, he underwent vocal training in Vienna and later came back to the United States to pursue a career in music, but would end up returning to Europe in the early 1950s after his career failed to take off. He settled down in Paris, where he was discovered by singer Édith Piaf while performing at a cabaret. His encounter with the French chanteuse led to his involvement in the musical La P'tite Lili and songwriting credits on the English versions of her most famous songs. During this time, Eddie Constantine reached the peak of his popularity as secret agent Lemmy Caution in the French B-movie La môme vert-de-gris (1953), a role he reprised in Je suis un sentimental (1955), Lemmy pour les dames (1961), Your Turn, Darling (1963), and Jean-Luc Godard's Alphaville (1965). In addition to his work on screen, he also cultivated a successful singing career through singles like "L’Enfant de la balle" (1954), "L'Homme et l'enfant" (1955), and "Cigarettes, whisky et p'tites pépées" (1957), and recorded the LPs Duo (1956) with Juliette Greco, the live LP Récital Eddie Constantine A L'Olympia (1956), and Eddie (1957). Mes Plus Grands Succès, a compilation that collected some of his biggest hits, was released by Barclay in 1968. Even though his popularity in France began to wane in the mid-1960s, he continued to do acting work in Germany, where he collaborated with the likes of Rosa von Praunheim, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and Lars Von Trier. He died of a heart attack on February 25, 1993, in his Wiesbaden residence.

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