Jean-Pierre Cassel (27 October 1932 – 19 April 2007) was a French actor.

Cassel was born Jean-Pierre Crochon in Paris, the son of Louise-Marguerite (née Fabrègue), an opera singer, and Georges Crochon, a doctor. Cassel was discovered by Gene Kelly as he tap danced on stage, and later cast in the 1957 film The Happy Road. Then Cassel gained prominence in the late 1950s as a hero in comedies by Philippe de Broca such as Male Companion and through his role as 'Jean François Jardie' in the famous French resistance piece L' Armée des ombres .

During the 1960s and 1970s he worked with Claude Chabrol (The Breach), Luis Buñuel (as Stéphane Audran's husband in The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie 1972), Ken Annakin (as Frenchman in Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines 1965), Gérard Brach (as Claude Jade's lover in The Boat on the Grass), Richard Lester (as Louis XIII of France in The Three Musketeers) and its sequel The Four Musketeers , Sidney Lumet (as Pierre in Murder on the Orient Express), Joseph Losey (with Isabelle Huppert in The Trout). He also made a memorable appearance in Oh! What a Lovely War as a French military officer singing 'Belgium put the Kibosh on the Kaiser'. In later years he appeared in Robert Altman's Prêt-à-Porter (1994) and also as Dr. Paul Gachet for Vincent & Theo (1990).

Ginger Rogers (July 16, 1911 – April 25, 1995) was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century.

During her long career, she made a total of 73 films, and was best known as Fred Astaire's romantic interest and dancing partner in a series of ten Hollywood musical films that revolutionized the genre. She achieved great success on her own in a variety of film roles and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Kitty Foyle (1940). She ranks #14 on the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars list of actress screen legends.

Rogers was born Virginia Katherine McMath in Independence, Missouri, the only child of William Eddins McMath, an electrical engineer, and his wife, Lela Emogene (née Owens; 1891–1977). Ginger's parents separated soon after her birth, and she and her mother went to live with her grandparents, Walter and Saphrona (née Ball) Owens, in nearby Kansas City. Rogers' parents fought over her custody. After her mother denied him visitation, her father reportedly absconded with his daughter twice. After her parents divorced, Rogers stayed with her grandparents while her mother wrote scripts for two years in Hollywood. Rogers was to remain close to her grandfather (much later, when she was a star in 1939, she bought him a home at 5115 Greenbush Avenue in Sherman Oaks, California so that he could be close to her while she was filming at the studios).^{[citation needed]}

Claude Marcelle Jorré, better known as Claude Jade (French: [klod ʒad]; 1948–2006), was a French actress, known for starring as Christine in François Truffaut's three films Stolen Kisses (1968), Bed and Board (1970) and Love on the Run (1979). Jade acted in theatre, film and television. Her film work outside of France included the Soviet Union, the United States, Italy and Japan.

The daughter of university professors, Jade spent three years at Dijon's Conservatory of Dramatic Art, where in 1964 she won a best actress prize for her portrayal of Agnès in Molière's L'école des femmes. In 1966 she won the Prix de Comédie for Jean Giraudoux's stage play Ondine, performed at the Comédie Boulogne. She moved to Paris and became a student of Jean-Laurent Cochet at the Edouard VII theater, and began acting in television productions, including the TV series Les oiseaux rares.

While performing as Frida in Pirandello's Henri IV, in a production by Sacha Pitoëff at the Théâtre Moderne, Jade was discovered by New Wave film director François Truffaut. He was "completely taken by her beauty, her manners, her kindness, and her joie de vivre", and cast her in the role of Christine Darbon in Stolen Kisses (1968). During the filming, Jade and Truffaut were engaged at one point. Stolen Kisses won great acclaim and put Jade in the international spotlight for her strong performance. In her role as Christine she taught her lover Antoine the best way to butter toast in the morning, and engaged in other amusing scenes with him. The American critic Pauline Kael wrote that Jade "seems a less ethereal, more practical Catherine Deneuve". Playing the same character, Jade appeared in two more movies by Truffaut, Bed and Board (1970), Love on the Run (1979).

John McEnery (born 1 November 1943) is an English actor and writer.

Born in Birmingham, he trained (1962-64) at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, playing, among others, Mosca in Ben Jonson's Volpone and Gaveston in Marlowe's Edward II. At the age of 20 he found his first stage work, spending three seasons with the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool. He joined the National Theatre company in 1966.

In the 1980s, at the Sheffield Crucible Theatre, he took the title role in Gogol's The Government Inspector, directed by the Russian actor and director Oleg Tabakov.

He starred alongside Claude Jade and Jean-Pierre Cassel in Gérard Brach's bittersweet The Boat on the Grass about a girl between two friends and appeared as Mercutio in Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet. He was nominated for a BAFTA for the latter performance. He also appeared, in the role of Kerensky, in the film Nicholas and Alexandra. In 2008, he appeared in a guest role in Sidetracked, the first episode of Wallander.

In 1998 he wrote the play Merry Christmas, Mr. Burbage in honour of the 400th anniversary of the creation of the Globe Theatre. In 2011 he appeared as Rowley in The School for Scandal (directed by Deborah Warner) at the Barbican Centre.

Serge Gainsbourg, born Lucien Ginsburg (French pronunciation: [sɛʁʒ ɡɛ̃sbuʁ]; 2 April 1928 – 2 March 1991) was a French singer, songwriter, poet, composer, artist, actor and director. Gainsbourg's extremely varied musical style and individuality make him difficult to categorize. His legacy has been firmly established, and he is often regarded as one of the world's most influential popular musicians.

He was born Lucien Ginsburg in Paris, France, the son of Russian Jewish emigrants, Joseph Ginsburg (28 December 1898, Kharkov (Ukraine) – 22 April 1971) and Olga Bessman (1894 – 16 March 1985), who fled to France after the 1917 Russian Revolution. He had a twin sister, Liliane. His childhood was profoundly affected by the occupation of France by Nazi Germany, during which he and his family, as Jews, were forced to wear the yellow star and eventually flee Paris. Before he was 30 years old, Gainsbourg was a disillusioned painter, but earned his living as a piano player in bars.

He first married Elisabeth "Lize" Levitsky on 3 November 1951, and divorced her in 1957. He married a second time on 7 January 1964, to Françoise-Antoinette "Béatrice" Pancrazzi (b. 28 July 1931), with whom he had two children: a daughter named Natacha (b. 8 August 1964) and a son, Paul (born in spring 1968, after Serge had gotten back together with Béatrice). They divorced in February 1966.