Grégoire Lassalle (20 March 1955 – 1 November 2023) was a French entertainer, businessman, film producer, and philanthropist.

Early life and career

Born in

Cannes Cannes (, ; , ; ) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions Internatio ...

, Lassalle trained as a

circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicy ...

entertainer under

Annie Fratellini Annie Violette Fratellini (14 November 1932 – 1 July 1997) was a French circus artist, singer, film actress and clown. Biography She was born Annie Violette Fratellini on 14 November 1932, in Algiers, French Algeria French Algeria ( un ...

, and performed for seven years as a

clown A clown is a person who performs physical comedy and arts in an Improvisational theatre#Comedy, open-ended fashion, typically while wearing distinct cosmetics, makeup or costume, costuming and reversing social norm, folkway-norms. The art of ...

in the late 1970s and early 1980s, under the

stage name A stage name or professional name is a pseudonym used by performers, authors, and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. The equivalent concept among writers is called a ''nom de plume'' (pen name). Some performers ...

Cornelius. He also worked with entertainers Farid Chopel and . In the 1980s Lassalle worked odd jobs, including as a tennis coach,

lifeguard A lifeguard is a rescuer who supervises the safety and rescue of swimmers, surfers, and other water sports participants such as in a swimming pool, water park, beach, spa, river and lake. Lifeguards are trained in swimming and Cardiopulmonary ...

, radio host on

Europe 1 Europe 1, (''Europe un'') formerly known as Europe nº 1, is a privately owned radio station created in 1955. It was owned and operated by Lagardère News, a subsidiary of the Lagardère Group, it was one of the leading radio broadcasting s ...

, events organizer, and resort manager for

Club Med Club Med SAS, commonly known as Club Med and previously known as Club Méditerranée SA, is a French travel and tourism operator headquartered in Paris, specializing in all-inclusive holidays. Founded in 1950, the company has been primarily ow ...

. He subsequently worked in the

film industry The film industry or motion picture industry comprises the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking, i.e., film production company, production companies, film studios, cinematography, animation, film production, screenwriting, pre- ...

, including as a direction assistant to

Claude Berri Claude Berri (; 1 July 1934 – 12 January 2009) was a French film director, writer, producer, actor and distributor. Early life Born Claude Beri Langmann in Paris, Berri was the son of Jewish immigrant parents. His mother, Beila (née Bercu), ...

. In 1991, while working for a

landscape design Landscape design is an independent profession and a design and art tradition, practiced by landscape designers, combining nature and culture. In contemporary practice, landscape design bridges the space between landscape architecture and garde ...

firm, he met

Jérôme Seydoux Jerome (c.347–420) was a priest, confessor, theologian and historian from Dalmatia. Jerome may also refer to: People Given name * Jerome (given name), a masculine name of Greek origin, with a list of people so named * Saint Jerome (disambiguat ...

, CEO of

Pathé Pathé SAS (; styled as PATHÉ!) is a French major film production and distribution company, owning a number of cinema chains through its subsidiary Pathé Cinémas and television networks across Europe. It is the name of a network of Fren ...

, and subsequently worked with him at Pathé in marketing roles from 1992 to 1998.

AlloCiné

Lassalle created his own film promotion company, and in 1998 sold it to

AlloCiné AlloCiné is an entertainment website founded by Jean-David Blanc in 1988, then joined by Patrick Holzman. It has belonged to the company since 2013 Webedia. which specializes in providing information on French cinema, mostly centering on nove ...

, a French

start-up company A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship includes all new businesses including self-employment and businesses that do not intend to ...

that had been founded in 1993 and initially offered information services about cinema in France; Lassalle then became an employee of AlloCiné. AlloCiné was purchased by

Canal+ Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flo ...

in 2000 and taken over by its parent

Vivendi Vivendi SE (stylized in all lowercase) is a French investment company headquartered in Paris. It currently wholly-owns Gameloft as well as a number of investments in several companies, primarily involved in content, entertainment, media, and t ...

in 2002, but the latter was experiencing financial and operational stress and soon decided to either divest or close AlloCiné. Together with fellow manager Bertrand Stéphann, Lassalle rescued the company from the risk of termination by partnering with

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

firm Cita Gestion through a

management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management- and/or leveraged buyouts became noted phenomena of 19 ...

in 2003. AlloCiné then expanded rapidly and highly successfully, and became the world's second-largest cinema-themed website by audience, behind

IMDb IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

. In 2007, majority control of AlloCiné was acquired by

Tiger Global Management Tiger Global Management, LLC (often referred to as Tiger Global and formerly known as Tiger Technology) is an American investment firm founded by Chase Coleman III, a former Tiger Management employee under Julian Robertson, in March 2001. It ma ...

for 120 million euro, of which a significant share went to Lassalle. In 2010, Lassalle took over the role of CEO, succeeding with whom he had worked as an entertainer in the late 1980s.

Film production

Lassalle relinquished the position of AlloCiné chief executive in 2013 but kept a leadership role in the company's

filmmaking Filmmaking or film production is the process by which a Film, motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, beginning with an initial story, idea, or commission. Production then continues through screen ...

arm, , which he had initiated in 2011. His

filmography A filmography is a list of films related by some criteria. For example, an actor's career filmography is the list of films they have appeared in; a director's comedy filmography is the list of comedy films directed by a particular Film director, ...

includes '' Chronic'' (2015, Best Screenplay Award at the

Festival de Cannes The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around t ...

), ''

Blind Date A blind date is a romantic meeting between two people who have never met before. Both parties arrange a date with little to no information about each other, hoping for the possibility of making a lasting impression. Typically, a family member or ...

'' (2015), ''

Crash Test Aglaé ''Crash Test Aglaé'' is a 2017 French comedy road film directed and written by Éric Gravel. Plot Aglaé (India Hair) is a rigidly work-obsessed young crash test technician with obsessive-compulsive disorder whose whole world is her work, apart ...

'' (2017), and ''

The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir ''The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir'' is a 2018 adventure comedy film directed by Ken Scott and written by Scott, Romain Puertolas, and Luc Bossi. It is based on the French novel ''The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in ...

'' (2018).

Philanthropy

Commemorative plaque at Boyo health center

In April 2017, Lassalle created the Cornelius Endowment (), a nonprofit mainly dedicated to projects in

Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...

. The Cornelius Endowment funds education and health projects in

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital city of Yamoussoukro is located in the centre of the country, while its largest List of ci ...

, in the villages of Boyo and Tiogo in the northern

Savanes District Savanes District (, , " Savannahs") is one of fourteen administrative districts of Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. It ...

. Grégoire Lassalle also invested as a

business angel An angel investor (also known as a business angel, informal investor, angel funder, private investor, or seed investor) is an individual who provides capital to a business or businesses, including startups, usually in exchange for convertible debt ...

and in

, including as a

limited partner A limited partnership (LP) is a type of partnership with general partners, who have a right to manage the business, and limited partners, who have no right to manage the business but have only limited liability for its debts. Limited partnership ...

of several funds of VC firm

Newfund Newfund is a venture capital firm focused on early stage investment in France and the United States. Founded in 2008, it had raised more than €400 million in funding by 2025, mostly from entrepreneurs, business leaders, and family offices. It ...

and a member of their respective consultative committees.

Personal life and death

Lassalle had two children with his wife, Gaëlle. He died on 1 November 2023, at the age of 68.

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lassalle, Gregoire 1955 births 2023 deaths French media executives People from Cannes