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