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.
Photos
Movies (122)
Les 100 vies de Francis Blanche
2022 · Self (archive footage)
Pierre Dac et Francis Blanche : Le Meilleur du Parti d'en Rire
2020 · Lui-même
Comiques de toujours (Vol. 1 à 4)
2009 · Self (archive footage)
Signé Furax
1981 · Writer
A Whale That Had a Toothache
1975 · Francis
No Pockets in a Shroud
1974 · Nathaël Grissom
Say it with Flowers
1974 · Gérard Rollain
France, Incorporated
1974 · Pierre, the perverted financier
OK Patron
1974 · Victor Hutin, Sophie's father
By the Blood of Others
1974 · Doctor
La Dernière Bourrée à Paris
1973 · Gaston Payrac
The Edifying and Joyous Story of Colinot
1973 · Wanderer
Le Solitaire
1973 · Norbert
Racconti romani di una ex-novizia
1973 · Pietro l'Aretino
I. You. They.
1973 · Darbon, le galeriste
La Grande Bouffe
1973 · Screenplay
I've Had It
1973 · Mr. de Chatiez
The Terror with Cross-Eyes
1972 · Commissioner Pigna
The Eroticist
1972 · padre Scirer
Scandal Man
1972 · Paluche
La Grande Maffia
1971 · Modeste Miette
Il furto è l'anima del commercio!?...
1971 · Sigfrid
Qu'est-ce qui fait courir les crocodiles ?
1971 · Hector Grogenol
Les Jambes en l'air
1971 · Hugon
Are You Engaged to a Greek Sailor or an Airline Pilot?
1971 · Maurice Gombaud
The Great Java
1971 · Auguste Kougloff / Augustin Colombani
Alice au pays des merveilles
1970 · King of hearts
Ces messieurs de la gâchette
1970 · Marco Lombardi
Adieu Berthe
1970 · Léo Bertold
The Stud
1970 · Tax collector Dupuis
Poussez pas grand-père dans les cactus
1969 · Alphonse Ramier / Al Gregor
Un merveilleux parfum d'oseille
1969 · Loïc de Kerfuntel
Aux frais de la princesse
1969 · Achille
Erotissimo
1969 · Le polyvalent
Le bourgeois gentil mec
1969 · Spinosa
Les gros malins
1969 · Francis Bertolde aka 'Le book'
Faites donc plaisir aux amis
1969 · Maximiliano
The Big Wash
1968 · Doctor Loupioc
Salut Berthe !
1968 · Passerby with the pipe (uncredited)
The Men in the Family
1968 · Strumberger
Rita the Field Marshal
1967 · Captain Hans Vogel
Loose in the Trigger
1967 · La Prudence
The Great Gadget
1967 · Copec
Belle de Jour
1967 · Mr. Adolphe
Le canard en fer blanc
1967 · Le docteur Grego
The Oldest Profession
1967 · The Doctor (segment "Aujourd'hui")
Deux Romains en Gaule
1967 · Le druide inventeur de la potion d'invisibilité
Order of the Daisy
1967 · L'inspecteur Maurice Leloup
The Big Grasshopper
1967 · Gédéon
Les enquiquineurs
1966 · Monsieur Achille Eloy
Les malabars sont au parfum
1966 · Ivanov
The Sleeping Sentinel
1966 · Constant
Under Your Hat
1965 · Mario l'enchanteur
Pas de caviar pour tante Olga
1965 · Dufour
The Real Bargain
1965 · Paul Souflé
Les baratineurs
1965 · Louis Dujardin
Les Gorilles
1964 · Félix
The Great Spy Chase
1964 · Boris Vassiliev
Chance at Love
1964 · Adjutant (segment "Chance du guerrier, La")
The Big Scare
1964
Les Pieds nickelés
1964 · Commissaire Lenoir
Male Hunt
1964 · Nino Papatakis
Champagne for Savages
1964 · Francis
The World's Most Beautiful Swindlers
1964 · Mr. Humlaupt (segment "L'Homme qui vendit la tour Eiffel")
Clémentine chérie
1964 · Nuisance at the Miss ceremony (uncredited)
Requiem pour un caïd
1964 · Émile aka 'le Boxeur'
Jaloux comme un tigre
1964 · Chauffeur
Dandelions by the Roots
1964 · Absalon
Actualités télérévisées
1964 · Presenter
The Black Tulip
1964 · Plantin
L'échelle
1964 · Breton
Les Gros Bras
1963 · Mr. Pédro Andromèze
Crooks in Clover
1963 · Maître Folace
Sweet and Sour
1963 · Franz
Light-Fingered George
1963 · Chief Insp. Cucherat
The Virgins
1963 · Mr. De Brétevielle
People in Luck
1963 · M. Bricheton (segment "Le Repas gastronomique")
The Abominable Man of Customs
1963 · Arnakos
Who Stole the Body?
1963 · Édouard
Tartarin de Tarascon
1962 · Antoine Tartarin, Director
The Hideout
1962 · Edouard
Snobs!
1962 · Morloch
Accroche-toi, y'a du vent!
1962 · Capitano Fornace
The Seventh Juror
1962 · Le procureur général
The Vendetta
1962 · Bartoli
Hitch-Hike
1962 · le douanier belge
Operation Gold Ingot
1962 · Fellous
Romulus and the Sabines
1961 · Mezio
The Girl of a Thousand Months
1961 · Commendator Borgioli
House of Sin
1961 · Blanchin
Les Livreurs
1961 · Félix
Long Live Henry IV... Long Live Love!
1961 · Prior
The Bear
1960 · Chappuis
Little Girls and High Finance
1960 · Bank manager
Le Olimpiadi dei mariti
1960
We Like It Cold
1960 · von Krussendorf
Love and the Frenchwoman
1960 · Me Marcerou, avocat et ami du couple (segment "Le Divorce")
Le pillole di Ercole
1960 · Augusto
Easy Come Easy Go
1960 · Félix
Long Live the Duke!
1960
Some Like It... Cold
1960 · William Foster Valmorin, American
Match contre la mort
1959 · Mr. Pascal
The Green Mare
1959 · Ferdinand Haudouin
Babette Goes to War
1959 · Schulz
Too Late to Love
1959 · Camille, le patron du bistrot
The Indestructible
1959 · Francis Blanchard
The Motorcycle Cops
1959 · His Excellency Curacagua
Toto in Paris
1958 · Il maggiordomo (uncredited)
The Little Professor
1958 · General overseer
A Dog, A Mouse and a Sputnik
1958 · Chazot
Anyone Can Kill Me
1957 · La Bonbonne
La Polka des menottes
1957 · un voisin
Honoré de Marseille
1956 · Pasquale Marchetti
Life is beautiful
1956 · un voisin
Peek-a-boo
1954 · Garibaldo Trouchet, le ténor / Un musicien, Lyricist
Trust Me!
1954 · Nicolas, Writer
Midnight... Quai de Bercy
1953 · M. Boulay, l'épicier libidineux
Good Enough to Eat
1951 · Gilles
Ils ont vingt ans
1950 · Michel Barbarin
The Sad Sack
1950 · Jean du Bois d'Ombelles
The Killer is Listening
1948 · Self
Frédérica
1942 · Ami de Gilbert
