Jean (Joë) Hamman, painter, draughtsman, movie producer and director, was born in Paris in 1883, the son of a Dutch painting expert and a lady-in-waiting to the French Empress Eugénie.

Hamman studied painting and drawing in Paris and London, illustrating a number of Balzac's works.  He developed a love of American Western films. After his tour in the French militia he traveled to America to study ranch life, eventually returning to France to shoot and produce nearly 100 cowboy films. Hamman died in Dieppe (north of France), in 1974.