Patrice Cabanel, who died in his sleep June 12 of a heart attack,was
very important to me since the first time that I met him in Paris.
At that time, he had just opened his agency in his apartment near
Place de Gambetta. He was "the new agent in town" and I was "the
new actor (from the U.S.) in town" and he asked me to help him contact
my friend Carolyn Monroe, who was a porn superstar in the U.S. to
bring her to work for Max Bellocchio in Paris.
I was living in Europe working for Alain Payet, Michel Ricaud for
VMD, Max Bellocchio, Gian Carlo Bini, Gabriel Pontello and a new
guy named Pierre Woodman (with hair) around Paris for a few weeks
but then the summer holiday started and NOBODY was shooting so I
ran out of money
.Even though I had only known Patrice for 2 weeks, he offered me
the key to his apartment and invited me to stay in his son's room
(his son was with the mother for the summer) until I left to Italy
to work for Mario Salieri 2 weeks later. I politely declined but
he would not take NO for an answer and insisted that I stay so I
did.
We became friends but over the next months all of the Italian productions
stopped coming to Paris to shoot and I only saw Patrice in Cannes
for the Hot d'Or Awards every year. Time went by...and then after
a long time not seeing Patrice I saw him in Brussels earlier this
year on March 5 when we both received awards at the European X Awards
event. I didn't think that it would be the last time I would see
this stranger who opened his heart for me in Paris a long time ago
and offered help to me without me asking. There is an empty space
in my soul...Patrice...I will miss you!