French Actor Louis Jourdan, who starred in the Academy Award winning movie Gigi, passed away in his home last February 7, according to Daily Mail.

Jourdan was 93 years old. His friend Oliver Minne, a biographer, broke the news through telephone from Paris.

Jourdan rose to fame by playing a suave von vivant in the movie Gigi and ultimately became one of Hollywood's top choices when it came to elegant gentlemen portrayals.

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Gigi was one of the most successful movies in the 1950s. Jourdan plays Gaston, a dashing gentleman falling for the titular character, played by actress Leslie Caron. The movie depicts a simple tomboy undergoes a dramatic metamorphosis of being a courtesan-in-training.

Jourdan also sang the movie's theme, which earned the Academy Award for best song. The movie also bagged the nine Academy Awards at that time.

Jourdan's place of origin was in Cannes. He grew up by the name Louis Gendre raised by his hotelier father. The actor went to Ecole Dramatique, a prestigious school in Paris, to study acting.

Jourdan eventually changed his name to his mother's maiden name for his budding movie career, which was cut short when World War II broke out in France.

The Nazis wanted Jourdan to make propaganda films but he vehemently refused. He fled to Southern France where he joined the French Resistance.

After the war, Jourdan resumed his acting career and starred in Alfred Hitchcock's movie, The Paradine Case.

Jourdan's handsome face made him being typecast as the romantic lead. He initially refused such roles and this caused him a suspension by American producer David Selznick under Hollywood's autocratic system.

"My basic disagreement with producers was that I didn't want to be perpetually cooing in a lady's ear," says Jourdan, in a 1960 interview with Coronet Magazine.

He later made amends with his Hollywood image and became known as the "French Cliché".

In his later career as an actor, Jourdan moved to versatile roles such as the villain Afghan Prince Kamal Khan, James Bond's nemesis in Octopussy.

Jourdan's wife Berthe Frederique, whom he married in 1946 when they met in the French underground, died last year. Their only child, Louis Henry Jourdan died of a drug overdose in 1981.

Jourdan retired from acting in 1992. In 2010, he was awarded the Legion of Honour award by France.

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