Francis Blanche
Acting
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.
Thank Heaven for Small Favors
as Chief Insp. Cucherat
Age 42 (now 52)
Dandelions by the Roots
as L'oncle Absalon, le savant farfelu
Age 42 (now 52)
Some Like It... Cold
as William Foster Valmorin, American
Age 38 (now 52)
Les 100 vies de Francis Blanche
as Self (archive footage)
Age 100 (now 52)
Pierre Dac et Francis Blanche : Le Meilleur du Parti d'en Rire
as Lui-même
Age 99 (now 52)
Comiques de toujours (Vol. 1 à 4)
as Self (archive footage)
Age 88 (now 52)
The Edifying and Joyous Story of Colinot
as Wanderer
Age 52
Racconti romani di una ex-novizia
as Pietro l'Aretino
Age 52
The Terror with Cross-Eyes
as Commissioner Pigna
Age 51 (now 52)
Il furto è l'anima del commercio!?...
as Sigfrid
Age 49 (now 52)
Qu'est-ce qui fait courir les crocodiles ?
as Hector Grogenol
Age 49 (now 52)
Are You Engaged to a Greek Sailor or an Airline Pilot?
as Maurice Gombaud
Age 49 (now 52)
Alice au pays des merveilles
as King of hearts
Age 49 (now 52)
Ces messieurs de la gâchette
as Marco Lombardi
Age 48 (now 52)
Poussez pas grand-père dans les cactus
as Alphonse Ramier / Al Gregor
Age 48 (now 52)
Un merveilleux parfum d'oseille
as Loïc de Kerfuntel
Age 48 (now 52)
The Oldest Profession
as The Doctor (segment "Aujourd'hui")
Age 45 (now 52)
Deux Romains en Gaule
as Le druide inventeur de la potion d'invisibilité
Age 45 (now 52)
Chance at Love
as Adjutant (segment "Chance du guerrier, La")
Age 43 (now 52)
The World's Most Beautiful Swindlers
as Mr. Humlaupt (segment "L'Homme qui vendit la tour Eiffel")
Age 43 (now 52)
Clémentine chérie
as Nuisance at the Miss ceremony (uncredited)
Age 43 (now 52)
Dandelions by the Roots
as L'oncle Absalon, le savant farfelu
Age 42 (now 52)
Thank Heaven for Small Favors
as Chief Insp. Cucherat
Age 42 (now 52)
People in Luck
as M. Bricheton (segment "Le Repas gastronomique")
Age 41 (now 52)
The Girl of a Thousand Months
as Commendator Borgioli
Age 40 (now 52)
Long Live Henry IV... Long Live Love!
as Prior
Age 39 (now 52)
Little Girls and High Finance
as Bank manager
Age 39 (now 52)
Love and the Frenchwoman
as Me Marcerou, avocat et ami du couple (segment "Le Divorce")
Age 39 (now 52)
Some Like It... Cold
as William Foster Valmorin, American
Age 38 (now 52)
Midnight... Quai de Bercy
as M. Boulay, l'épicier libidineux
Age 31 (now 52)
Gathering insights...
Also Known As
Francis-Jean Blanche, Francis Jean Blanche
IMDB
nm0087126