Joe Dassin is one of the emblematic stars of French song. Today is the sad anniversary of his death, which occurred on August 20, 1980 when he was only 41 years old. He died of a heart attack while having lunch with his sons Julien and Jonathan (then aged 5 years and 18 months and born of his union with Christine Delvaux), his mother Béatrice Launier and his lyricist (and friend) Claude Lemesle in the restaurant With Michel and Eliane in Tahiti.
He had come to recharge the batteries for a fortnight in French Polynesia after an exhausting tour. The interpreter of the tubes The Champs-Élysées, And if you did not exist and In the eyes of Emilie died suddenly under the panicked eyes of his relatives and his children, totally helpless. “But what is happening to me?“, he would have pronounced around 12:30 p.m. just before losing his balance and falling to the ground. A cardiac massage carried out by a doctor present on the spot will not have been enough to resuscitate the native singer of New York.
An unimpeachable lifestyle
But this incident did not happen like a hair in the soup. The artist had been experiencing health problems for several months. He had already suffered from a stomach ulcer and a heart attack in July 1980, the year of his death. Known to have had a drug addiction, (he had also been arrested with large amounts of cocaine), he had nevertheless decided to adopt a healthier lifestyle for the sake of his children. Unfortunately, this effort was not enough.
After this tragic death, the ex-husband of Maryse Massiera was interred in the Jewish block of Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles. A commemorative plaque has also been installed in his memory in the city of Papeete, where he breathed his last.