Vincent Cassel

Vincent Cassel (French: [vɛ̃sɑ̃ kasɛl]; né Crochon [kʁɔʃɔ̃]; born 23 November 1966) is a French actor. He has earned a César Award and a Canadian Screen Award as well as nominations for a European Film Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

Cassel first achieved recognition for his performance as a troubled Jewish youth in Mathieu Kassovitz's 1995 film La Haine (Hate) for which he received two César Award nominations. He also garnered attention for Gaspar Noé's film Irréversible (2002) which he acted in and co-produced. He received the César Award for Best Actor for his role as the criminal Jacques Mesrine in Mesrine (2008). His other César-nominated roles include Read My Lips (2001), Mon Roi (2015), It's Only the End of the World (2016), and The Specials (2019).

Cassel garnered recognition with English-speaking roles in Elizabeth (1998), Shrek (2001), Ocean's Twelve (2004) and Ocean's Thirteen (2007), Eastern Promises (2007), Black Swan (2010), and Jason Bourne (2016). In 2020, he appeared on the HBO series Westworld.

Cassel was born in Paris, France, to journalist Sabine Litique and actor Jean-Pierre Cassel (born Jean-Pierre Crochon). Cassel's brother, Mathias, is a rapper with the group Assassin under the name "Rockin' Squat". His half-sister, Cécile Cassel, is also an actress.

One of Cassel's first on-screen appearances was a bit part in a 1994 Renault Clio advert which was used in the UK.

Cassel's breakthrough role was in Mathieu Kassovitz's critically acclaimed film La Haine (1995), in which he portrayed a troubled youth living in the deprived outskirts of Paris. For his role in La Haine, Cassel was nominated for two César Awards, for Best Actor and Most Promising Actor.

Throughout the 1990s and the early 2000s, Cassel performed in a string of French films. In 1996, he starred opposite Monica Bellucci (before they married) in the moody French film L'Appartement. The film was a critical success, winning a BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language and the first British Independent Film Award for the Best Film in a Foreign Language. The film was also a modest hit in France gaining 55,565 admissions its opening weekend and 152,714 admissions total. Although the film was never released theatrically in the United States, it was released on DVD on 22 August 2006.

In 1998, he portrayed Henry, Duc d'Anjou in Elizabeth. In 1999, he portrayed Gilles de Rais in Luc Besson's The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc. Other notable roles during this period of his career include the violent film Dobermann (1997), the genre-bending Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001), and the highly controversial Irréversible (2002), where he appears fully nude (with Monica Bellucci, after they married).