Jean-Marc Barr is a French-American actor and director, born on September 27, 1960, in Bitburg, Germany. He achieved international fame with the role of diver Jacques Mayol in Luc Besson's film *Le Grand Bleu* (*The Big Blue*, 1988), a performance that earned him a César Award nomination for Best Actor. Subsequently, he established a long-lasting artistic collaboration with Danish director Lars von Trier, appearing in many of his works, including *Europa*, *Breaking the Waves*, *Dancer in the Dark*, and *Dogville*. Alongside his acting career, he embarked on directing, often in partnership with Pascal Arnold, with whom he directed the Dogme 95-influenced trilogy consisting of *Lovers* (1999), *Too Much Flesh* (2000), and *Being Light* (2001). His filmography is characterized by a predilection for European arthouse cinema and by often intense and unconventional roles, away from the commercial mainstream.