Francis Blanche

Actor · 1921–1974 · Paris, France

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.

Acted in 116

2020s

2020
Pierre Dac et Francis Blanche : Le Meilleur du Parti d'en Rire
Lui-même

1970s

1975
A Whale That Had a Toothache
Francis
1974
No Pockets in a Shroud
Nathaël Grissom
Say it with Flowers
Gérard Rollain
France, Incorporated
Pierre, the perverted financier
OK Patron
Victor Hutin, Sophie's father
By the Blood of Others
Doctor
1973
La Dernière Bourrée à Paris
Gaston Payrac
The Edifying and Joyous Story of Colinot
Wanderer
Le Solitaire
Norbert
Racconti romani di una ex-novizia
Pietro l'Aretino
I. You. They.
Darbon, le galeriste
I've Had It
Mr. de Chatiez
1972
The Terror with Cross-Eyes
Commissioner Pigna
The Eroticist
padre Scirer
57
Scandal Man
Paluche
1971
La Grande Maffia
Modeste Miette
Il furto è l'anima del commercio!?...
Sigfrid
Qu'est-ce qui fait courir les crocodiles ?
Hector Grogenol
Les Jambes en l'air
Hugon
Are You Engaged to a Greek Sailor or an Airline Pilot?
Maurice Gombaud
The Great Java
Auguste Kougloff / Augustin Colombani
1970
Alice au pays des merveilles
King of hearts
Ces messieurs de la gâchette
Marco Lombardi
Adieu Berthe
Léo Bertold
The Stud
Tax collector Dupuis
57

1960s

1969
Poussez pas grand-père dans les cactus
Alphonse Ramier / Al Gregor
Un merveilleux parfum d'oseille
Loïc de Kerfuntel
Aux frais de la princesse
Achille
Erotissimo
Le polyvalent
Le bourgeois gentil mec
Spinosa
Les gros malins
Francis Bertolde aka 'Le book'
Faites donc plaisir aux amis
Maximiliano
1968
The Big Wash
Doctor Loupioc
Salut Berthe !
Passerby with the pipe (uncredited)
The Men in the Family
Strumberger
1967
Rita the Field Marshal
Captain Hans Vogel
Loose in the Trigger
La Prudence
The Great Gadget
Copec
Belle de Jour
Mr. Adolphe
80
Le canard en fer blanc
Le docteur Grego
The Oldest Profession
The Doctor (segment "Aujourd'hui")
53
Deux Romains en Gaule
Le druide inventeur de la potion d'invisibilité
Order of the Daisy
L'inspecteur Maurice Leloup
The Big Grasshopper
Gédéon
1966
Les enquiquineurs
Monsieur Achille Eloy
Les malabars sont au parfum
Ivanov
The Sleeping Sentinel
Constant
1965
Under Your Hat
Mario l'enchanteur
Pas de caviar pour tante Olga
Dufour
Le Bonheur conjugal
Le patron du restaurant · 1 episode
The Real Bargain
Paul Souflé
Les baratineurs
Louis Dujardin
1964
Les Gorilles
Félix
The Great Spy Chase
Boris Vassiliev
68
Chance at Love
Adjutant (segment "Chance du guerrier, La")
The Big Scare
Movie
Les Pieds nickelés
Commissaire Lenoir
Male Hunt
Nino Papatakis
Champagne for Savages
Francis
The World's Most Beautiful Swindlers
Mr. Humlaupt (segment "L'Homme qui vendit la tour Eiffel")
Clémentine chérie
Nuisance at the Miss ceremony (uncredited)
Requiem pour un caïd
Émile aka 'le Boxeur'
Jaloux comme un tigre
Chauffeur
Dandelions by the Roots
Absalon
57
The Black Tulip
Plantin
65
L'échelle
Breton
1963
Les Gros Bras
Mr. Pédro Andromèze
Crooks in Clover
Maître Folace
Sweet and Sour
Franz
Light-Fingered George
Chief Insp. Cucherat
The Virgins
Mr. De Brétevielle
People in Luck
M. Bricheton (segment "Le Repas gastronomique")
The Abominable Man of Customs
Arnakos
Who Stole the Body?
Édouard
1962
Tartarin de Tarascon
Antoine Tartarin
The Hideout
Edouard
Snobs!
Morloch
Accroche-toi, y'a du vent!
Capitano Fornace
The Seventh Juror
Le procureur général
The Vendetta
Bartoli
Hitch-Hike
le douanier belge
Operation Gold Ingot
Fellous
1961
Romulus and the Sabines
Mezio
49
The Girl of a Thousand Months
Commendator Borgioli
Les Livreurs
Félix
Long Live Henry IV... Long Live Love!
Prior
1960
The Bear
Chappuis
Little Girls and High Finance
Bank manager
Le Olimpiadi dei mariti
Movie
We Like It Cold
von Krussendorf
Love and the Frenchwoman
Me Marcerou, avocat et ami du couple (segment "Le Divorce")
58
Le pillole di Ercole
Augusto
Easy Come Easy Go
Félix
Long Live the Duke!
Movie
Some Like It... Cold
William Foster Valmorin, American