 He studied drama and began his acting career in the theatre.He secured his first minor screen roles in Yves Allégret's " Jack of Spades" ("Chien de pique", 1960), performing alongside Eddie Constantine.Possibly his best remembered role was as the gangster lover/client of the bourgeois prostitute (Catherine Deneuve) in "Belle de jour" (1967) directed by Luis Buñuel, in whose other film "The Milky Way" (1969) he played the Devil.