Jacques Perrin (born Jacques André Simonet; 13 July 1941) is a French actor and filmmaker. He is occasionally credited as Jacques Simonet. Simonet was his father's name and Perrin his mother's. Perrin was born in Paris. His father, Alexandre Simonet, was a theatre director. Perrin was trained as an actor at the Conservatoire National Supérieur d'Art Dramatique. He was given his first juvenile film roles by Italian director Valerio Zurlini. He also gave over 400 performances of L'Année du bac on the Paris stage. He played opposite Claudia Cardinale in the romantic comedy La Ragazza con la valigia and played the younger brother in Family Diary with Marcello Mastroianni, both under the direction of Zurlini. He was also the adult Salvatore in the international hit Cinema Paradiso. He won two Best Actor awards at the Venice Film Festival in 1966 for the Italian film Almost a Man and the Spanish film The Search. At 27, he created a studio and produced and acted in Z, directed by Costa Gavras and starring Jean-Louis Trintignant, Yves Montand, and Irene Papas. Z received an Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1969.