<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

Jean Passepartout, as played by actor Michel Courtemanche on The Sci Fi Channel's 2001 series, The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne, was loosely based upon the fictional character Passepartout, created by the French writer Jules Verne.

In the series, Passepartout was baron to the semi-piratical captain of a Mediterranean trading vessel. Uncertain of his actual birthplace, Passapartout, combined all the nationalities of Southern Europe from Albania to Spain.

Before becoming Phileas Fogg's valet, he had been a circus acrobat, lumberjack, large-animal veterinary assistant, and hairdresser to the Emperor of Ethiopia.

Passepartout did his best to be an exemplary manservant, ironing his master's Times every morning and keeping his evening wear immaculate. When the occasion arose, he also was a fair cook, though with a taste for the exotic that Fogg deplored.

He had an uncanny knack of being able to conjure up a tray, glass and an appropriate beverage so he could serve a relaxing round of drinks in almost any circumstance with a napkin draped neatly over his arm. Passepartout also had succeeded in memorizing the railway timetables for nearly every country in the world, so that Fogg was in no danger of one of his most dreaded nightmares: missing a connection.

Passepartout's real genius, however, was for concocting things. He had created a workshop in the Aurora in which he can build almost any device Jules Verne could dream up, from a stun grenade to a magnetometer.

He worked at extraordinary speed; a device could be invented, prototyped and tested within the course of a single episode. It might not have worked as planned, but it certainly did something.

Passepartout exemplified joie de vivre; he truly knew how to enjoy life. He'd always be on the lookout for a moment of simple pleasure in the midst of the most hair-raising exploit: a beautiful woman to admire, a plump chicken to be turned into a tasty ragout, or an interesting local character with whom to spend an evening in some smoky tavern.

He also could precipitate appalling disasters; lured away by an exhibit at a traveling fair, or pursuing a buxom fellow servant with a come hither smile. Passepartout had the good fortune of being a happy person. Unlike the others, he had no unattained goals.