Jérôme Seydoux

Jérôme Seydoux was born on 21 September 1934 in Paris's 16th arrondissement.^[3][4] He is the son of René Seydoux Fornier de Clausonne and Geneviève Schlumberger, the brother of Véronique, Nicolas, and Michel Seydoux, the father of Henri Seydoux, the stepfather of Farida Khelfa, and the grandfather of Camille Seydoux and Léa Seydoux.^[5] He studied at the Ecole nationale supérieure d'électronique, d'électrotechnique et d'hydraulique de Toulouse.^[4]

Seydoux began his career in 1962 as a financial analyst at Istel, Lepercq & Co. in New York.^[4] In 1975, he was elected president of Schlumberger,^[6] but was quickly driven out of the company following a power struggle.^[2] In 1986, he chaired the board of directors of La Cinq with Silvio Berlusconi.^[4]

In 1990, Seydoux's Chargeurs conglomerate purchased the Pathé film company from Giancarlo Parretti for 1.1 billion francs.^[7] He served as the company's président-directeur général (PDG) until 2000.^[8] In 1993, he became a shareholder of the newspaper Libération.^[9] In February 1999, he acquired a stake in the football club Olympique Lyonnais.^[10] The Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé, which he founded and was recognized as a non-profit organization in 2006, serves to preserve, restore, and enhance Pathé's historical heritage, which includes more than 10,000 films.^[11]

Faced with the COVID-19 crisis and its consequences on cinema, which caused movie theater attendance to plummet, Jérôme Seydoux, alongside Pathé's teams, decided to embark on major French productions reminiscent of the 1950s and 1960s, particularly "large historical frescoes" that are rarely produced by modern Hollywood. The early results of this new strategy notably include The Three Musketeers (2023), The Count of Monte Cristo (2024), 13 Days 13 Nights (2025), and in 2026, De Gaulle. Commercially, the strategy initiated by Jérôme Seydoux is working overall, despite the mixed box-office performance of 13 Days 13 Nights. Furthermore, Jérôme Seydoux has always admired General de Gaulle, which motivated his decision to produce De Gaulle (2026) with a substantial budget.^[12][13][14]

Following these successes, several French cinema groups are following the strategy of epic historical frescoes and major literary adaptations initiated by Pathé and Jérôme Seydoux, notably StudioCanal with Les Misérables and SND Films with Dracula : a love tale (shot in english) in partnership with EuropaCorp, and Fantômas: The New World in 2027.^[15][16]

Seydoux was first married to Hélène Zumbiehl, with whom he had four children, Carlotta, Henri (Léa's father), Alexis and Ludovic, before divorcing.^[5] In 1988, he married Sophie Desserteaux.^[1] In 1989, Zumbiehl committed suicide by setting fire to her car and locking herself in it. After her death, their children distanced themselves from Jérôme.^[5] In 1991, he had his last son, Jules, with Desserteaux. He also adopted Pénélope, Thomas, and Raphaëlla, the children Sophie had with her former husband Christophe Riboud, who died in a car accident in 1987.^[1]

Seydoux's fortune in 2025 was estimated at 1.5 billion euros, placing him 89th among the richest French people.^[17]

Acting

• 2009: Officer of the Legion of Honour^[18]