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Born · July 20, 1921
Died · July 6, 1974 (52 years old)
Known For: Acting
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.
Self (archive footage)
0.0
2022
Lui-même
0.0
2020
Self (archive footage)
0.0
2009
Francis
5.0
1975
Nathaël Grissom
5.4
1974
4.0
1974
Pierre, le financier pervers
4.1
1974
Victor Hutin, Sophie's father
5.0
1974
Le médecin
5.0
1974
Gaston Payrac
1.0
1973
Wanderer
5.1
1973
Norbert
5.3
1973
Pietro l'Aretino
2.0
1973
Darbon, le galeriste
4.0
1973
Mr. de Chatiez
5.0
1973
Commissioner Pigna
0.0
1972
padre Scirer
5.7
1972
Self · (2 episodes)
6.0
1972
4.0
1972
Modeste Miette
3.0
1971
Sigfrid
4.0
1971
Hector Grogenol
4.0
1971
Hugon
4.0
1971
Maurice Gombaud
3.7
1971
Auguste Kougloff / Augustin Colombani
6.1
1971
Self · (4 episodes)
6.0
1971
King of hearts
5.7
1970
Marco Lombardi
3.3
1970
Léo Bertold
0.0
1970
Tax collector Dupuis
4.9
1970
Alphonse Ramier / Al Gregor
3.5
1969
Loïc de Kerfuntel
3.0
1969
1.0
1969
Le polyvalent
6.0
1969
Spinosa
1.0
1969
Francis Bertolde aka 'Le book'
1.0
1969
Maximiliano
4.5
1969
Self · (1 episode)
8.0
1968
Doctor Loupioc
6.0
1968
Passerby with the pipe (uncredited)
4.4
1968
Captain Hans Vogel
5.2
1967
La Prudence
5.6
1967
Copec
3.2
1967
Monsieur Adolphe
7.4
1967
Le docteur Grego
3.8
1967
The Doctor (segment "Aujourd'hui")
5.1
1967
Le druide inventeur de la potion d'invisibilité
6.5
1967
L'inspecteur Maurice Leloup
6.3
1967
Gédéon
6.2
1967
Strumberger
5.2
1967
Monsieur Achille Eloy
3.0
1966
Ivanov
3.3
1966
Constant
4.7
1966
Mario l'enchanteur
3.6
1965
0.0
1965
Paul Souflé
1.0
1965
Le patron du restaurant · (1 episode)
0.0
1965
Louis Dujardin
4.0
1965
Félix
5.5
1964
Boris Vassiliev
6.8
1964
Adjutant (segment "Chance du guerrier, La")
5.8
1964
5.9
1964
Commissaire Lenoir
5.8
1964
Nino Papatakis
6.6
1964
Francis
6.0
1964
Mr. Humlaupt (segment "L'Homme qui vendit la tour Eiffel")
5.2
1964
l'importun à la cérémonie des Miss (non crédité)
6.0
1964
Emile
5.8
1964
le chauffeur
2.0
1964
Absalon
5.6
1964
Presenter
0.0
1964
Plantin
6.2
1964
Mr. Pédro Andromèze
3.8
1963
Maître Folace
7.7
1963
Franz
4.6
1963
Chief Insp. Cucherat
6.5
1963
M. de Brétevielle
4.6
1963
M. Bricheton (« Le Repas gastronomique »)
5.6
1963
Arnakos
5.0
1963
Édouard
6.5
1963
Antoine Tartarin
4.8
1962
Edouard
0.0
1962
Morloch
5.7
1962
0.0
1962
Attorney General
6.9
1962
Bartoli
5.4
1962
le douanier belge
5.5
1962
Fellous
0.0
1962
Mezio
5.0
1961
Commendator Borgioli
2.0
1961
Blanchin
4.0
1961
Félix
0.0
1961
Prior
5.2
1961
Chappuis
6.0
1960
6.5
1960
7.3
1960
von Krussendorf
6.5
1960
Me Marcerou, avocat et ami du couple (segment "Le Divorce")
4.9
1960
Augusto
0.0
1960
Félix
4.0
1960
0.0
1960
William, Foster Valmorin, l'américain
5.5
1960
0.0
1959
Ferdinand Haudouin
5.6
1959
Schulz
5.5
1959
Camille, le patron du bistrot
5.6
1959
Francis Blanchard
5.0
1959
His Excellency Curacagua
5.0
1959
Self · (1 episode)
0.0
1959
Il maggiordomo (uncredited)
6.2
1958
General overseer
3.1
1958
Chazot
4.0
1958
La Bonbonne
5.9
1957
un voisin
6.8
1957
Pasquale Marchetti
5.7
1956
un voisin
4.5
1956
Self · (2 episodes)
8.0
1956
Garibaldo Trouchet, le ténor / Un musicien
4.9
1954
Nicolas
5.4
1954
M. Boulay, l'épicier libidineux
6.5
1953
Gilles
6.5
1951
Michel Barbarin
0.0
1950
Jean du Bois d'Ombelles
0.0
1950
Self
1.0
1948
Ami de Gilbert
4.0
1942