I just heard in the news that Jean Marais died today.

As most of you know, he was the cover-star on the "This Charming Man" single with the famous "mirror-cover" from the movie "Orphee".

The Reuters report from Brad:

NICE, France, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Veteran French film and theatre actor Jean Marais has died, friends said on Monday. He was 84.

They said he died in hospital in the Riviera resort of Cannes early on Sunday.

Marais' best-known role was as the fierce-looking but kind-hearted beast in "Beauty and the Beast," an internationally-acclaimed fantasy directed in 1946 by poet Jean Cocteau, his mentor and long-time companion.

His relationship with Cocteau was unknown to the public at large and Marais' spectacular good looks made him a heartthrob for French teenage girls in the early years of his long career.

His last film appearance was three years ago in Bernardo Bertolucci's "Stolen Beauty."

He appeared in dozens of classical plays, wrote several books and was also a talented sculptor.

Although he starred in films during the 1940-1944 German occupation of France, Marais joined General Philippe Leclerc's French Second Armoured Division after the liberation of Paris and participated in the Allied push into Germany as driver of lorries delivering petrol and ammunition to the front, often under fire.