He started out as romantic hero full of beauty and talent in La ragazza con la valigia (1961) beside Claudia Cardinale. Director Valerio Zurlini engaged the talented young actor for his Cronaca familiare (1962) as Marcello Mastroianni's brother. Jacques Perrin's longtime work with Director 'Constantin Costa-Gavras' started with Compartiment tueurs (1965) and Un uomo a metà (1966) in which he had played the sensible heroes. For Costa-Gavras' Z (1969) he played a main part and was the producer. Jacques Perrin has played often in famous romantic movies by Jacques Demy beside Catherine Deneuve and in social-critic-movies like Home Sweet Home (1973) beside Claude Jade, for which he was co-producer too with his Reggane Productions. One of his memorable later roles is the adult Salvatore as movie-director in Nuovo Cinema Paradiso (1988). In Le pacte des loups (2001) he plays the older Thomas.