Biography
Henri Kassagi, also credited as Kassagi or Abdelmaǧīd al-QaṣʿAǧī, was a Franco-Tunisian actor, magician, painter and author. Born Abd El-maǧīd al-QaṣʿAǧī on 28 September 1932 in Halfaouine, Tunis, he trained his hands through pickpocketing in the streets of Tunis from a young age before moving to Paris in the early 1950s.
Kassagi appeared as the 1st Accomplice in Robert Bresson’s Pickpocket (1959), for which he also served as technical advisor on the thieves’ skills. After the film, he became a stage magician specialising in sleight-of-hand illusions based on pickpocketing techniques. He appeared in further screen roles, including episodes of the television series Agence Intérim (1969) and Navarro (1995), and the film Loulou Graffiti (1992). Kassagi died in Paris on 23 June 1997.
