Jacques Sernas

• Date of Birth:

  30 July 1925 Kaunas, Lithuania

With eye-catching good looks, blond Lithuanian-born actor Jacques Sernas (aka Jack Sernas) is best known for cutting a fine figure in European spectacles in the 1950s and 1960s. Born in 1925 he was raised and schooled in Paris before joining up as a French Resistance fighter during WWII. Captured by the Germans and imprisoned for over a year in Buchenwald, he was eventually freed and began studying medicine in his early post-war years. Acting soon caught his fancy, however, and he made his unbilled debut... more

With eye-catching good looks, blond Lithuanian-born actor Jacques Sernas (aka Jack Sernas) is best known for cutting a fine figure in European spectacles in the 1950s and 1960s. Born in 1925 he was raised and schooled in Paris before joining up as a French Resistance fighter during WWII. Captured by the Germans and imprisoned for over a year in Buchenwald, he was eventually freed and began studying medicine in his early post-war years. Acting soon caught his fancy, however, and he made his unbilled debut in the French film Miroir (1947). He would dominant both French and Italian pictures in the ensuing years with such action films as The Red Falcon (1949), in the title role, and in such costumed romancers as Anita Garibaldi (1952). He hit major international attention after being cast as Paris opposite sex sirens Rosanna Podesta and Brigitte Bardot in Helen of Troy (1956). Hollywood took brief notice but nothing much came of it. He was relegated for the most part to supporting characters, making one lasting impression as a fading matinee idol in Fellini's masterpiece La Dolce Vita (1960).