PARIS - French actor Jean-Pierre Aumont, who charmed audiences -- and actresses -- on both sides of the Atlantic for decades before and after World War II, died on Tuesday aged 92, officials said.

President Jacques Chirac paid tribute to the actor, whose real name was Jean-Pierre Solomons, calling him a formidable actor who marked the history of the French theater and cinema and who also conquered Hollywood and Broadway with panache.

Chirac recalled that Aumont volunteered for Gen. Charles de Gaulle's Free French forces during World War II and took part in the Tunisian, Italian and French campaigns.

The son of a well-to-do family, Aumont made his stage debut at 21 and appeared in 74 films, starting with the French Jean de la lune in 1932 and ending with the American-made Jefferson in Paris in 1995.

Among his best-known films were the 1938 French drama Hotel du Nord, the Hollywood wartime propaganda films Assignment in Brittany and Cross of Lorraine, and Francois Truffaut's classic Day for Night in 1973.

Aumont acted on stage in France and the United States and authored several stage productions in Paris.

Tall, blonde and blue-eyed and with a dazzling smile, he was successively married to actresses Blanche Montel, Maria Montez and Marisa Pavan. He was also once engaged to screen goddess Hedy Lamarr.