1. - Jean-Paul Belmondo, A bout de souffle/Breathless, France, 1960.   After making a short together, critic-turned-realisateur Jean-Luc Godard told Belmondo: "You   will   star   in   my   first   feature."   He   still considered    Charles Aznavour and Distel (singers, both!) before calling Bebel for the movie that made them both.

2. - Jacques Charrier,   Babette s'en va-t-en guerre/Babette Goes To War, France, 1959.   Brigitte Bardot's singer boyfriend was the obvious choice for her leading man in a light, keep-her-clothes-on comedy, except...   "I   was perhaps the only   man in   France   to   decline." Charrier did not and became the next husband and father of their son, Nicolas.