Ex-Pat Director Jules Dassin Dead at 96

Jules Dassin, the black-listed Hollywood director who practically invented the heist film with Rififi and Topkapi has died of complications of the flu in Athens.

Also known for his film noir work in movies such as Brute Force and The Naked City, he married Melina Mercouri, the star of one of his most popular films, Never on Sunday.

He was a busy Hollywood helmsman in the 1940s until the red-baiting began, and the House Un-American Activities Committee started hunting commies in the entertainment coummunity. Dassin never denied his party membership, and could not find work. He moved to France in 1953.

One of the actors Dassin worked with in his well-regarded film noir Night and the City, Richard Widmark, died just a few days earlier.