Hossein died in hospital after suffering a "respiratory problem", his wife Candice Patou said.
Born on 30 December, 1927 to an Iranian Zoroastrian composer father and a Russian Orthodox mother, Hossein began acting in his teens.
He made his name in the 1960s as the smouldering count of Peyrac in the Angélique series of baroque romances.
But he was also regularly cast by arthouse directors, including Roger Vadim, who picked him to play the suicidal love interest of Brigitte Bardot in Love on a Pillow in 1962.
DISPARITION. L'homme de théâtre Robert Hossein est mort à l’âge de 93 ans. Il connait la célébrité avec « Angélique, marquise des anges ». Metteur en scène, il s'était lancé dans des superproductions théâtrales à grands succès. En 1976, il évoquait des débuts bohèmes. pic.twitter.com/NZhfsYeBE8
— Ina.fr (@Inafr_officiel) December 31, 2020
In later years he threw his energy into huge stage productions aimed at luring the general public into theatres.
"Theatre like you've never seen in the cinema," was how he billed his lavish shows, which included an epic production of the gladiator tale Ben-Hur at the Stade de France stadium.
"He was the prince of theatre for the masses," the former president of the Cannes film festival, Gilles Jacob, wrote on Twitter.
(with AFP)
