Jean-Claude Villeminot (24 October 1927 – 5 May 1992), better known as Jean-Claude Pascal (French pronunciation:[ʒɑ̃klodpaskal]), was a French comedian, actor, singer and writer.
Early life
He was born in
Paris into a family of wealthy textile manufacturers. His mother, Arlette Lemoine, was the great-granddaughter of English fashion designer
Charles Frederick Worth. His father, Roger Villeminot, died the year of his birth.[1]
He began his secondary education in 1938 at the Collège Annel, in
Compiègne, and concluded it at the Lycée Janson-de-Sailly in Paris. In 1944, at the age of 17, he enlisted in the
2nd Armored Division of
General Leclerc. He was the first French soldier to enter
Strasbourg in November 1944, while the
German Army was still in the process of evacuating the city. For this, he received the Croix de Guerre in 1945.[2]
Career
After surviving
World War II in
Strasbourg, Pascal studied at the
Sorbonne before turning to fashion-designing for
Christian Dior. While working on costumes for the theater production of the play Don Juan, he was exposed to acting. His first acting role was in the film Le jugement de Dieu (1949, released in 1952) and afterwards in "Le rideau cramoisi", 1951, opposite
Anouk Aimée, followed by several films including Die schöne Lügnerin (La Belle et l'empereur 1959, 'Beautiful Liar') with
Romy Schneider, and Angelique and the Sultan (Angélique et le sultan, 1968) with
Michèle Mercier.
Pascal won the
1961Eurovision Song Contest for
Luxembourg with the song "
Nous les amoureux" ('We the lovers'), with music composed by
Jacques Datin and lyrics by
Maurice Vidalin. The song tells the story of a thwarted love between the singer and his lover ("they would like to separate us, they would like to hinder us / from being happy"). The lyrics go on about how the relationship is rejected by others but will finally be possible ("but the time will come. [...] and I will be able to love you without anybody in town talking about it. [...] [God] gave us the right to happiness and joy."). Later, Pascal explained that the song was about a
homosexual relationship and the difficulties it faced. As this topic would have been considered controversial in the early
1960s, the lyrics are ambiguous and do not refer to the lovers'
gender. This allowed hiding the song's actual message, which was not understood in this way by the general public at the time.[3] Pascal was, himself, gay.[4]