Francis Blanche
Known For: Acting
Gender: Male
Date of Birth: July 20, 1921
Day of Death: July 6, 1974 (53 years old)
Place of Birth: Paris, France
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.
2022
2020
2009
1981
1975
1974
1973
1972
1971
Actor Auguste Kougloff / Augustin Colombani
The Great Java
Actor Modeste Miette
La Grande Maffia
Actor Maurice Gombaud
Are You Engaged to a Greek Sailor or an Airline Pilot?
Actor Sigfrid
Il furto è l'anima del commercio!?...
Actor Hector Grogenol
Qu'est-ce qui fait courir les crocodiles ?
Actor Hugon
Les jambes en l'air
1970
1969
Actor Le polyvalent
Erotissimo
Actor Francis Bertolde aka 'Le book'
Les gros malins
Actor Alphonse Ramier / Al Gregor
Poussez pas grand-père dans les cactus
Actor
Aux frais de la princesse
Actor Maximiliano
Faites donc plaisir aux amis
Actor Spinosa
Le bourgeois gentil mec
Actor Loïc de Kerfuntel
Un merveilleux parfum d'oseille
1968
1967
Actor Captain Hans Vogel
Rita the Field Marshal
Actor Strumberger
The Men in the Family
Actor Gédéon
The Big Grasshopper
Actor La Prudence
Du mou dans la gâchette
Actor L'inspecteur Maurice Leloup
Les Compagnons de la marguerite
Actor Le docteur Grego
Le canard en fer blanc
Actor The Doctor (segment "Aujourd'hui")
The Oldest Profession
Actor Monsieur Adolphe
Belle de Jour
Actor Copec
The Great Gadget
Actor Le druide inventeur de la potion d'invisibilité
Deux Romains en Gaule
1966
1965
1964
Actor Nino Papatakis
Male Hunt
Actor Boris Vassiliev
The Great Spy Chase
Actor Francis
Champagne for Savages
Actor Mr. Humlaupt (segment "L'Homme qui vendit la tour Eiffel")
The World's Most Beautiful Swindlers
Actor Absalon
Dandelions by the Roots
Actor
The Big Scare
Actor Commissaire Lenoir
Les pieds nickelés
Actor Félix
Les Gorilles
Actor Emile
Requiem pour un caïd
Actor le chauffeur
Jaloux comme un tigre
Actor l'importun à la cérémonie des Miss (non crédité)
Clémentine chérie
Actor Presenter
Actualités télérévisées
Actor Plantin
The Black Tulip
Actor Adjutant (segment "Chance du guerrier, La")
Chance at Love
1963
Actor Maître Folace
Crooks in Clover
Actor Chief Insp. Cucherat
Thank Heaven for Small Favors
Actor Franz
Sweet and Sour
Actor M. Bricheton (« Le Repas gastronomique »)
People in Luck
Actor M. de Brétevielle
The Virgins
Actor Édouard
Who Stole the Body?
Actor Mr. Pédro Andromèze
Les gros bras
Actor Arnakos
The Abominable Man of Customs
1962
1961
1960
Actor
Le Olimpiadi dei mariti
Actor William, Foster Valmorin, l'américain
Some Like It... Cold
Actor Me Marcerou, avocat et ami du couple (segment "Le Divorce")
Love and the Frenchwoman
Actor Chappuis
The Bear
Actor
Long Live the Duke!
Actor
Little Girls and High Finance
Actor von Krussendorf
We Like It Cold
Actor Félix
Easy Come Easy Go
Actor Augusto
Le pillole di Ercole
