Barr was born to a French mother and an American father working in the US Armed Forces. He is fluent in both French and English. Barr was born in West Germany where his father was stationed, and lived an itinerant childhood. His family moved to France in 1968, then to California in 1974.\n', 'Barr\'s parents wished for him to join the armed forces, but he was unwilling to follow in his father\'s footsteps. He studied philosophy at the University of California, Los Angeles, the Paris Conservatoire and the Sorbonne. He moved to London to pursue an education in drama at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.\n', 'Barr began working in theatre in France in 1986. After finding work in television (including a small role in Hotel du Lac (1986), the BBC\'s version of the Booker prize-winning novel by Anita Brookner), and film, (in particular Hope and Glory (1987) by John Boorman), he was cast in the tremendously successful The Big Blue (1988). Luc Besson cast him in the role of French diver Jacques Mayol, alongside Rosanna Arquette and Jean Reno. The Big Blue was the most financially successful film in France in the 1980s.\n', '

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