Joseph Ira Dassin (November 5, 1938 August 20, 1980), more commonly known as Joe Dassin, was an American singer-songwriter. Joe was born in New York City to American film noir director Jules Dassin and Batrice Launer, a Hungarian virtuoso violinist. He began his childhood first in New York City and Los Angeles. However, after his father became a victim of McCarthyism, he and his family moved from place to place across Europe.
After studying at the International School of Geneva and the Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland, Dassin moved back to the United States to go to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. After college, he moved back to France where, while working at a radio station, a record label convinced him to begin to record his songs.
By the early 1970s, Dassin's songs were on the top of the charts in France and he had become very well known. He was also a talented polyglot, recording songs in German, Russian, Spanish, Italian and Greek, as well as French and English.
He died of a heart attack during a vacation to Tahiti on August 20, 1980. He is interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California.