Francis Blanche
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.
Known For
Credits
- 2022 · Les 100 vies de Francis Blanche as Self (archive footage)
- 2020 · Pierre Dac et Francis Blanche : Le Meilleur du Parti d'en Rire as Lui-même
- 2009 · Comiques de toujours (Vol. 1 à 4) as Self (archive footage)
- 1975 · A Whale That Had a Toothache as Francis
- 1974 · No Pockets in a Shroud as Nathaël Grissom
- 1974 · Say it with Flowers as
- 1974 · OK Patron as Victor Hutin, le père de Sophie
- 1974 · Par le sang des autres as Le médecin
- 1973 · La Dernière Bourrée à Paris as Gaston Payrac
- 1973 · The Edifying and Joyous Story of Colinot as Le vagabond
- 1973 · Le Solitaire as Norbert
- 1973 · Racconti romani di una ex-novizia as Pietro l'Aretino
- 1973 · I. You. They. as Darbon, le galeriste
- 1973 · I've Had It as Mr. de Chatiez
- 1972 · The Terror with Cross-Eyes as Commissioner Pigna
- 1972 · The Eroticist as padre Scirer
- 1972 · Midi trente as Self
- 1972 · Scandal Man as
- 1971 · Are You Engaged to a Greek Sailor or an Airline Pilot? as Maurice Gombaud
- 1971 · La Grande Maffia as Modeste Miette
- 1971 · Il furto è l'anima del commercio!?... as Sigfrid
- 1971 · Qu'est-ce qui fait courir les crocodiles ? as Hector Grogenol
- 1971 · Les jambes en l'air as Hugon
- 1971 · The Great Java as Auguste Kougloff / Augustin Colombani
- 1971 · Samedi soir as Self
- 1970 · Alice au pays des merveilles as
- 1970 · Ces messieurs de la gâchette as Marco Lombardi
- 1970 · Adieu Berthe as Léo Bertold
- 1970 · The Stud as le percepteur Dupuis
- 1969 · Poussez pas grand-père dans les cactus as Alphonse Ramier / Al Gregor
- 1969 · Un merveilleux parfum d'oseille as Loïc de Kerfuntel
- 1969 · Aux frais de la princesse as
- 1969 · Erotissimo as Le polyvalent
- 1969 · Le bourgeois gentil mec as Spinosa
- 1969 · Les gros malins as Francis Bertolde dit 'Le book'
- 1969 · Faites donc plaisir aux amis as Maximiliano
- 1968 · À bout portant as Self
- 1968 · The Big Wash as Le docteur Loupioc
- 1968 · Salut Berthe ! as Le passant à la pipe (uncredited)
- 1967 · Rita the Field Marshal as Captain Hans Vogel
- 1967 · Du mou dans la gâchette as La Prudence
- 1967 · The Great Gadget as Copec
- 1967 · Belle de Jour as Monsieur Adolphe
- 1967 · Le canard en fer blanc as Le docteur Grego
- 1967 · The Oldest Profession as The Doctor (segment "Aujourd'hui")
- 1967 · Deux Romains en Gaule as Le druide inventeur de la potion d'invisibilité
- 1967 · Les Compagnons de la marguerite as L'inspecteur Maurice Leloup
- 1967 · The Big Grasshopper as Gédéon
- 1967 · The Men in the Family as Strumberger
- 1966 · Les enquiquineurs as Monsieur Achille Eloy
- 1966 · Les malabars sont au parfum as Ivanov
- 1966 · The Sleeping Sentinel as Constant
- 1965 · Under Your Hat as Mario l'enchanteur
- 1965 · Pas de caviar pour tante Olga as
- 1965 · The Real Bargain as
- 1965 · Le bonheur conjugal as Le patron du restaurant
- 1965 · Les baratineurs as Louis Dujardin
- 1964 · Chance at Love as L'adjudant
- 1964 · Les Gorilles as Félix
- 1964 · The Great Spy Chase as Boris Vassiliev
- 1964 · The Big Scare as
- 1964 · Les pieds nickelés as Commissaire Lenoir
- 1964 · Male Hunt as Nino Papatakis
- 1964 · Champagne for Savages as Francis
- 1964 · The World's Most Beautiful Swindlers as Mr. Humlaupt (segment "L'Homme qui vendit la tour Eiffel")
- 1964 · Clémentine chérie as l'importun à la cérémonie des Miss (non crédité)
- 1964 · Requiem pour un caïd as Emile
- 1964 · Jaloux comme un tigre as le chauffeur
- 1964 · Dandelions by the Roots as Absalon
- 1964 · Actualités télérévisées as Presenter
- 1964 · The Black Tulip as Plantin
- 1963 · Les gros bras as Mr Pédro Andromèze
- 1963 · Crooks in Clover as Maître Folace
- 1963 · Sweet and Sour as Franz
- 1963 · Thank Heaven for Small Favors as Chief Insp. Cucherat
- 1963 · The Virgins as M. de Brétevielle
- 1963 · People in Luck as M. Bricheton (« Le Repas gastronomique »)
- 1963 · The Abominable Man of Customs as Arnakos
- 1963 · Who Stole the Body? as Édouard
- 1962 · Tartarin de Tarascon as Antoine Tartarin
- 1962 · The Hideout as Edouard
- 1962 · Snobs! as Morloch
- 1962 · Accroche-toi, y'a du vent! as
- 1962 · The Seventh Juror as Le procureur général
- 1962 · The Vendetta as Bartoli
- 1962 · Hitch-Hike as le douanier belge
- 1962 · Operation Gold Ingot as Fellous
- 1961 · Romulus and the Sabines as Mezio
- 1961 · The Girl of a Thousand Months as Commendator Borgioli
- 1961 · House of Sin as Blanchin
- 1961 · Les livreurs as Félix
- 1961 · Long Live Henry IV... Long Live Love! as Le prieur
- 1960 · The Bear as Chappuis
- 1960 · Little Girls and High Finance as
- 1960 · Le Olimpiadi dei mariti as
- 1960 · We Like It Cold as von Krussendorf
- 1960 · Love and the Frenchwoman as Me Marcerou, avocat et ami du couple (Le Divorce)
- 1960 · Le pillole di Ercole as Augusto
- 1960 · Easy Come Easy Go as Félix
- 1960 · Long Live the Duke! as
- 1960 · Some Like It... Cold as William, Foster Valmorin, l'américain
- 1959 · Match contre la mort as
- 1959 · The Green Mare as Ferdinand Haudouin
- 1959 · Babette Goes to War as Schulz
- 1959 · Too Late to Love as Camille, le patron du bistrot
- 1959 · The Indestructible as
- 1959 · The Motorcycle Cops as His Excellency Curacagua
- 1959 · Discorama as Self
- 1958 · Toto in Paris as Il maggiordomo (uncredited)
- 1958 · The Little Professor as Le surveillant général
- 1958 · A Dog, A Mouse and a Sputnik as
- 1957 · Anyone Can Kill Me as La Bonbonne
- 1957 · La Polka des menottes as un voisin
- 1956 · Honoré de Marseille as Pasquale Marchetti
- 1956 · Life is beautiful as un voisin
- 1956 · Cinépanorama as Self
- 1954 · Peek-a-boo as Garibaldo Trouchet, le ténor / Un musicien
- 1954 · Trust Me! as Nicolas
- 1953 · Midnight... Quai de Bercy as M. Boulay, l'épicier libidineux
- 1951 · Good Enough to Eat as Gilles
- 1950 · Ils ont vingt ans as Michel Barbarin
- 1950 · The Sad Sack as Jean du Bois d'Ombelles
- 1948 · The Killer is Listening as Self
- 1942 · Frédérica as Ami de Gilbert