Francis Blanche
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.
Known For
Nino Papatakis
La Chasse à l'homme
Attorney General
Le Septième Juré
Le Olimpiadi dei mariti
padre Scirer
Nonostante le apparenze... e purchè la nazione non lo sappia... all'onorevole piacciono le donne
Boris Vassiliev
Les Barbouzes
Maître Folace
Les Tontons flingueurs
Chief Insp. Cucherat
Un drôle de paroissien
Franz
Dragées au poivre
M. Bricheton (segment "Le Repas gastronomique")
Les Veinards
Doctor Loupioc
La Grande Lessive (!)
Mr. de Brétevielle
Les Vierges
Le polyvalent
Erotissimo
Ferdinand Haudouin
La Jument verte
Auguste Kougloff / Augustin Colombani
La Grande Java
Captain Hans Vogel
La feldmarescialla
Garibaldo Trouchet, le ténor / Un musicien
Ah ! Les belles bacchantes
Pasquale Marchetti
Honoré de Marseille
Strumberger
Ces messieurs de la famille
Gédéon
La Grande Sauterelle
William Foster Valmorin, American
Certains l'aiment... froide
Tax collector Dupuis
L'Étalon
Michel Barbarin
Ils ont vingt ans
Francis
Le Repas des fauves
La Prudence
Du mou dans la gâchette
le douanier belge
Les Petits Matins
Gilles
Une fille à croquer
Mr. Humlaupt (segment "L'Homme qui vendit la tour Eiffel")
Les Plus Belles Escroqueries du monde
L'oncle Absalon, le savant farfelu
Des pissenlits par la racine
La Grande Frousse
Commissaire Lenoir
Les Pieds nickelés
Me Marcerou, avocat et ami du couple (segment "Le Divorce")
La Française et l'Amour
Morloch
Snobs!
Francis Bertolde aka 'Le book'
Les gros malins
Self (archive footage)
Les 100 vies de Francis Blanche
Modeste Miette
La Grande Maffia
L'inspecteur Maurice Leloup
Les Compagnons de la Marguerite
Nicolas
Faites-moi confiance
Antoine Tartarin
Tartarin de Tarascon
Édouard
Les Bricoleurs
Mr. Pédro Andromèze
Les Gros Bras
Mr. de Chatiez
J'ai mon voyage!
Bartoli
La vendetta
Félix
Les Gorilles
Edouard
La planque
Le docteur Grego
Le canard en fer blanc
un voisin
La vie est belle
Maurice Gombaud
Êtes-vous fiancée à un marin grec ou à un pilote de ligne ?
Wanderer
L'histoire très bonne et très joyeuse de Colinot Trousse-Chemise
Nathaël Grissom
Un linceul n'a pas de poches
Francis
Une baleine qui avait mal aux dents
Chappuis
L'ours
Arnakos
L'Abominable Homme des douanes
Sigfrid
Il furto è l'anima del commercio!?...
Gaston Payrac
La Dernière Bourrée à Paris
Ivanov
Les malabars sont au parfum
Darbon, le galeriste
Je, tu, elles...
Pietro l'Aretino
Racconti romani di una ex-novizia
Camille, le patron du bistrot
Pourquoi viens-tu si tard…
Alphonse Ramier / Al Gregor
Poussez pas grand-père dans les cactus
Francis Blanchard
L'increvable
un voisin
La Polka des menottes
Gérard Rollain
Dites-le avec des fleurs
General overseer
Le Petit Prof
Émile aka 'le Boxeur'
Requiem pour un caïd
Mr. Pascal
Match contre la mort
His Excellency Curacagua
Les Motards
Chazot
À pied, à cheval et en spoutnik
Vive le duc!
Dufour
Pas de caviar pour tante Olga
Capitano Fornace
Accroche-toi, y'a du vent!
Paul Souflé
La Bonne Occase
Prior
Vive Henri IV... Vive l'amour
The Doctor (segment "Aujourd'hui")
Le Plus Vieux Métier du monde
King of hearts
Alice au pays des merveilles
Passerby with the pipe (uncredited)
Salut Berthe !
Achille
Aux frais de la princesse
Paluche
L'Odeur des fauves
Maximiliano
Faites donc plaisir aux amis
Léo Bertold
Adieu Berthe
Bank manager
Anonima cocottes
Mr. Adolphe
Belle de jour
Blanchin
Les Menteurs
Marco Lombardi
Ces messieurs de la gâchette
M. Boulay, l'épicier libidineux
Minuit... Quai de Bercy
Copec
Le Grand Bidule
Fellous
En plein cirage
Doctor
Par le sang des autres
Norbert
Le Solitaire
Schulz
Babette s'en va-t-en guerre
Constant
La Sentinelle endormie
Hector Grogenol
Qu'est-ce qui fait courir les crocodiles ?
Jean du Bois d'Ombelles
Tire au flanc
Commendator Borgioli
La ragazza di mille mesi
Mezio
Il ratto delle sabine
Spinosa
Le bourgeois gentil mec
von Krussendorf
A noi piace freddo...!!
Chauffeur
Jaloux comme un tigre
Mario l'enchanteur
La Tête du client
Louis Dujardin
Les baratineurs
Félix
Les Pique-assiette
Félix
Les Livreurs
Loïc de Kerfuntel
Un merveilleux parfum d'oseille
Victor Hutin, Sophie's father
OK patron
La Bonbonne
Tous peuvent me tuer
Nuisance at the Miss ceremony (uncredited)
Clémentine chérie
Il maggiordomo (uncredited)
Totò a Parigi
Augusto
Le pillole di Ercole
Hugon
Les Jambes en l'air
Monsieur Achille Eloy
Les enquiquineurs
Self
L'assassin est à l'écoute
Presenter
Actualités télérévisées
Ami de Gilbert
Frédérica
Commissioner Pigna
Il terrore con gli occhi storti
Self (archive footage)
Comiques de toujours (Vol. 1 à 4)
Plantin
La Tulipe noire
Le druide inventeur de la potion d'invisibilité
Deux Romains en Gaule
Adjutant (segment "Chance du guerrier, La")
La Chance et l'Amour
Lui-même
Pierre Dac et Francis Blanche : Le Meilleur du Parti d'en Rire
Pierre, the perverted financier
France, société anonyme
Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Known Credits
119
Gender
Male
Birthday
1921-07-20
Place of Birth
Paris, France
Also Known As
Francis-Jean Blanche