Person Details

Birthday: 1921-07-20 16:24:26

Death: 1974-07-06 16:24:26

Aliases: Francis-Jean Blanche

Gender: Male

Place of birth: Paris, France

Homepage:

Movie Involvements: 31

TV Involvements: 2


Most Famous Work

Biography

François Jean Blanche, known as "Francis Blanche" (20 July 1921 – 6 July 1974) was a French actor, singer, humorist and author. He was a very popular figure on stage, radio and in films, during the 1950s and 1960s. His two daughters, Barbara & Dominique, are artists with their studios in Eze. Blanche was born in an artistic family, mainly of stage actors—including his father Louis Blanche and his uncle, Emmanuel Blanche, who was a painter—. He completed his secondary schooling at fourteen, the youngest in France to do so at the time. In the 1940s and 1950s, Blanche was part of Robert Dhéry's theatrical company Les Branquignols, with whom he played in the film Ah! Les belles bacchantes, starring Robert Dhéry, Colette Brosset (Dhéry's then-wife), and Louis de Funès; directed by Jean Loubignac in 1954. Blanche teamed up with Pierre Dac to form a comic duo best remembered for Le Sâr Rabindranath Duval, a sketch about a phony and nonsensical Indian clairvoyant and guru (1957). They also created a popular and equally nonsensical radiophonic series, loosely based on a highly improbable espionage and conspiration plot, Malheur aux barbus, which was broadcast on Paris Inter in 213 episodes from 1951 to 1952. The same plot and characters were revived on Europe 1 in a series called Signé Furax, enjoying no less than 1,034 daily episodes between 1956 and 1960. Both broadcasts were phenomenal audience successes in the pre-television era. Blanche was also renowned for broadcasting phone pranks, in which he entertained listeners by making the most improbable situations sound plausible. He wrote poems, and the lyrics of 673 songs. On stage, he acted in Tartuffe and Néron and, in 1955, Chevalier du Ciel, an operetta by Luis Mariano at the Gaîté-Lyrique theatre. Blanche also enjoyed a successful cinematographic career, both as an actor and scriptwriter. He appeared as a hard-headed German colonel ("Obersturmführer Schulz") opposite Brigitte Bardot in Babette s'en va-t-en guerre (1959). He was one of the favourite actors of French filmmaker Georges Lautner, and played Maître Folace (a shady solicitor counselling a colourful gangster mob) in Les Tontons flingueurs (1963). Blanche also appeared in Boris Vassilief's Les Barbouzes (1964). He delighted in parodying classical music, adapting famous works such as Schubert's "Die Forelle" (The Trout) into a crazy and slightly risqué piece about a 16-year-old romantic girl obsessed with Schubert's song to the point of giving birth to a live trout while performing it on her piano. Similarly, he turned Beethoven's 5th Symphony into a lengthy and quite repetitive musical glorification of the clothes peg and its fictitious inventor, Jérémie-Victor Opdebec. Blanche died at the age of 52, from a heart attack with a background of untreated Type 1 diabetes. He is buried in Èze cemetery. Source: Article "Francis Blanche" from Wikipedia in english, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Most Famous Work

Midi trente
Average
6

Midi trente

(1972) Self
Belle de Jour
Average
7

Belle de Jour

(1967) Monsieur Adolphe
À bout portant
Average
8

À bout portant

(1968) Self
The Black Tulip
Average
6

The Black Tulip

(1964) Plantin
The Seventh Juror
Average
7

The Seventh Juror

(1962) Le procureur général
Le Bourgeois gentil mec
Average
0

Le Bourgeois gentil mec

(1969) spinosa
Ils ont vingt ans
Average
0

Ils ont vingt ans

(1950) Michel Barbarin
Pourquoi viens-tu si tard...
Average
6

Pourquoi viens-tu si tard...

(1959) Camille, le patron du bistrot

Acting

Year Character Movie/Tv
2022 Self (archive footage)
2009 Self (archive footage)
1975 Francis
1974 Nathaël Grissom
Victor Hutin, le père de Sophie
Le médecin
1973 Gaston Payrac
Norbert
Le vagabond
Pietro l'Aretino
Darbon, le galeriste
Mr. de Chatiez
1972 Commissioner Pigna
padre Scirer
Self
1971 Maurice Gombaud
Modeste Miette
Sigfrid
Hector Grogenol
Hugon
Auguste Kougloff / Augustin Colombani
Self
1970 Marco Lombardi
Léo Bertold
le percepteur Dupuis
1969 Alphonse Ramier / Al Gregor
Loïc de Kerfuntel
Le polyvalent
Francis Bertolde dit 'Le book'
Maximiliano
spinosa
1968 Self
Le docteur Loupioc
1967 Captain Hans Vogel
La Prudence
Copec
Monsieur Adolphe
Le docteur Grego
Le druide inventeur de la potion d'invisibilité
L'inspecteur Maurice Leloup
Gédéon
Strumberger
1966 Monsieur Achille Eloy
Ivanov
Constant
1965 Mario l'enchanteur
Le patron du restaurant
Louis Dujardin
1964 L'adjudant
Félix
Boris Vassiliev
N/A
Commissaire Lenoir
Nino Papatakis
Francis
L'Allemand
Mr. Humlaupt
l'importun à la cérémonie des Miss (non crédité)
le chauffeur
Absalon
Presenter
Plantin
1963 Mr Pédro Andromèze
Maître Folace
Franz
Chief Insp. Cucherat
M. de Brétevielle
M. Bricheton (« Le Repas gastronomique »)
Arnakos
Édouard
1962 Antoine Tartarin
Edouard
Morloch
Le procureur général
Bartoli
le douanier belge
Fellous
1961 Mezio
Commendator Borgioli
Blanchin
Félix
Le prieur
1960 Chappuis
N/A
N/A
von Krussendorf
Me Marcerou, avocat et ami du couple (Le Divorce)
Augusto
Félix
William, Foster Valmorin, l'américain
1959 Ferdinand Haudouin
Schulz
Camille, le patron du bistrot
His Excellency Curacagua
Self
1958 Il maggiordomo (uncredited)
1957 La Bonbonne
un voisin
1956 Pasquale Marchetti
un voisin
Self
1954 Garibaldo Trouchet, le ténor / Un musicien
Nicolas
1953 M. Boulay, l'épicier libidineux
1951 Gilles
1950 Michel Barbarin
Jean du Bois d'Ombelles
1948 Self
1942 Ami de Gilbert
Year Character Movie/Tv

Writing

Directing

Year Role Movie/Tv
1962 Director
Year Role Movie/Tv

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