Victor Perez

Victor "Young" Perez (October 18, 1911 – January 22, 1945) was a Tunisian Jewish boxer, who became the World Flyweight Champion in 1931 and 1932.

Perez was denounced to the Occupation authorities and arrested in Paris on September 21, 1943 and detained in the Drancy internment camp before being transported to Auschwitz where he was assigned to the Monowitz subcamp to serve as a slave laborer for I.G. Farben at the Buna-Werke. He was killed on January 22, 1945 on the death march from Monowitz to Gleiwitz.

Early life

He was born to Khmaïssa Perez, a household goods salesman, and Khaïlou René Perez. He was raised along with his four siblings in Dar-El Berdgana, the Jewish quarter of Tunis. He started training as a boxer at age 14 along with his older brother Benjamin “Kid” Perez to emulate his idol Battling Siki, a boxing champion from Senegal. Perez had a brief relationship with French-Italian actress Mireille Balin of Monaco.

Boxing career

Perez won the French Flyweight title in Paris in 1930, defeating Kid Oliva from Marseille. On October 24, 1931, he won the International Boxing Union World Flyweight crown by knocking out Frankie Genaro in the second round. He was the youngest world champion in boxing history.

Víctor Pérez (director)

Víctor Raúl Pérez Raya (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈbiktor ˈpeɾeθ]; born 11 February 1981) is a Spanish film director, producer and digital film compositor who has worked on a number of Hollywood films, including The Dark Knight Rises, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Les Miserables and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. His science-fiction short film The Girl and the Mask is due to be released in 2015.

Education and career

Victor Perez studied performing arts first at the Escuela Municipal de Teatro Duque de Rivas in Lucena (his birthplace), and then at the Escuela Superior de Arte Dramático in Malaga, Spain, graduating in 2004. He then traveled to Italy to study Commedia dell'Arte and renaissance mask making under Antonio Fava. Following his studies, he founded his own theater company, Gestus, where he began directing and producing on the stage with plays including El Tendedero, Versus and The Zanni Skinhead Comedy, which he co-produced with Commedia dell’Arte director Antonio Fava. Perez's first film role was in 2006, when he was cast in the film Summer Rain, directed by Antonio Banderas.