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Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Birthday
July 20, 1921
Died
July 6, 1974
Place of Birth
Paris, France
Also Known As
- Francis-Jean Blanche
Francis Blanche
0.3 Popularity
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
0.0
Self (archive footage)
Les 100 vies de Francis Blanche
2022
8.0
Lui-même
Pierre Dac et Francis Blanche : Le Meilleur du Parti d'en Rire
2020
6.0
Self (archive footage)
Comiques de toujours (Vol. 1 à 4)
2009
5.0
Francis
A Whale That Had a Toothache
1975
5.2
Nathaël Grissom
No Pockets in a Shroud
1974
4.0
Gérard Rollain
Say it with Flowers
1974
3.9
Pierre, the perverted financier
France, Incorporated
1974
5.0
Victor Hutin, Sophie's father
OK Patron
1974
4.2
Doctor
By the Blood of Others
1974
1.0
Gaston Payrac
La Dernière Bourrée à Paris
1973
Credits
Les 100 vies de Francis Blanche
as Self (archive footage)
2022
0.0
Pierre Dac et Francis Blanche : Le Meilleur du Parti d'en Rire
as Lui-même
2020
8.0
Comiques de toujours (Vol. 1 à 4)
as Self (archive footage)
2009
6.0
A Whale That Had a Toothache
as Francis
1975
5.0
No Pockets in a Shroud
as Nathaël Grissom
1974
5.2
Say it with Flowers
as Gérard Rollain
1974
4.0
France, Incorporated
as Pierre, the perverted financier
1974
3.9
OK Patron
as Victor Hutin, Sophie's father
1974
5.0
By the Blood of Others
as Doctor
1974
4.2
La Dernière Bourrée à Paris
as Gaston Payrac
1973
1.0
The Edifying and Joyous Story of Colinot
as Wanderer
1973
4.8
Le Solitaire
as Norbert
1973
5.3
Racconti romani di una ex-novizia
as Pietro l'Aretino
1973
2.0
I. You. They.
as Darbon, le galeriste
1973
3.3
I've Had It
as Mr. de Chatiez
1973
5.0
The Terror with Cross-Eyes
as Commissioner Pigna
1972
0.0
The Eroticist
as padre Scirer
1972
5.5
🎬
Midi trente
as Self
1972
6.0
Scandal Man
as Paluche
1972
4.0
La Grande Maffia
as Modeste Miette
1971
3.0
Il furto è l'anima del commercio!?...
as Sigfrid
1971
4.0
Qu'est-ce qui fait courir les crocodiles ?
as Hector Grogenol
1971
7.0
Les Jambes en l'air
as Hugon
1971
3.4
Are You Engaged to a Greek Sailor or an Airline Pilot?
as Maurice Gombaud
1971
3.3
The Great Java
as Auguste Kougloff / Augustin Colombani
1971
5.9
🎬
Samedi soir
as Self
1971
6.0
Alice au pays des merveilles
as King of hearts
1970
5.7
Ces messieurs de la gâchette
as Marco Lombardi
1970
3.3
Adieu Berthe
as Léo Bertold
1970
0.0
The Stud
as Tax collector Dupuis
1970
4.7
Poussez pas grand-père dans les cactus
as Alphonse Ramier / Al Gregor
1969
3.5
Un merveilleux parfum d'oseille
as Loïc de Kerfuntel
1969
3.0
Aux frais de la princesse
as Achille
1969
1.0
Erotissimo
as Le polyvalent
1969
5.6
Le bourgeois gentil mec
as Spinosa
1969
1.0
Les gros malins
as Francis Bertolde aka 'Le book'
1969
1.0
Faites donc plaisir aux amis
as Maximiliano
1969
4.5
À bout portant
as Self
1968
8.0
The Big Wash
as Doctor Loupioc
1968
5.9
Salut Berthe !
as Passerby with the pipe (uncredited)
1968
4.4
The Men in the Family
as Strumberger
1968
5.0
Rita the Field Marshal
as Captain Hans Vogel
1967
5.1
Du mou dans la gâchette
as La Prudence
1967
5.6
The Great Gadget
as Copec
1967
3.6
Belle de Jour
as Mr. Adolphe
1967
7.3
Le canard en fer blanc
as Le docteur Grego
1967
3.8
The Oldest Profession
as The Doctor (segment "Aujourd'hui")
1967
4.9
Deux Romains en Gaule
as Le druide inventeur de la potion d'invisibilité
1967
6.5
Order of the Daisy
as L'inspecteur Maurice Leloup
1967
6.3
The Big Grasshopper
as Gédéon
1967
6.2
Les enquiquineurs
as Monsieur Achille Eloy
1966
3.0
Les malabars sont au parfum
as Ivanov
1966
3.3
The Sleeping Sentinel
as Constant
1966
4.7
Under Your Hat
as Mario l'enchanteur
1965
3.3
Pas de caviar pour tante Olga
as Dufour
1965
0.0
Le Bonheur conjugal
as Le patron du restaurant
1965
0.0
The Real Bargain
as Paul Souflé
1965
1.0
Les baratineurs
as Louis Dujardin
1965
4.0
Les Gorilles
as Félix
1964
5.5
The Great Spy Chase
as Boris Vassiliev
1964
6.8
Chance at Love
as Adjutant (segment "Chance du guerrier, La")
1964
5.8
The Big Scare
1964
5.7
Les pieds nickelés
as Commissaire Lenoir
1964
5.8
Male Hunt
as Nino Papatakis
1964
6.5
Champagne for Savages
as Francis
1964
6.1
The World's Most Beautiful Swindlers
as Mr. Humlaupt (segment "L'Homme qui vendit la tour Eiffel")
1964
5.3
Clémentine chérie
as Nuisance at the Miss ceremony (uncredited)
1964
6.0
Requiem pour un caïd
as Émile aka 'le Boxeur'
1964
5.8
Jaloux comme un tigre
as Chauffeur
1964
2.0
Dandelions by the Roots
as L'oncle Absalon, le savant farfelu
1964
5.4
🎬
Actualités télérévisées
as Presenter
1964
0.0
The Black Tulip
as Plantin
1964
6.3
Les Gros Bras
as Mr. Pédro Andromèze
1963
3.8
Crooks in Clover
as Maître Folace
1963
7.7
Sweet and Sour
as Franz
1963
4.6
Thank Heaven for Small Favors
as Chief Insp. Cucherat
1963
6.6
The Virgins
as Mr. de Brétevielle
1963
4.2
People in Luck
as M. Bricheton (segment "Le Repas gastronomique")
1963
5.5
The Abominable Man of Customs
as Arnakos
1963
5.0
Who Stole the Body?
as Édouard
1963
6.5
Tartarin de Tarascon
as Antoine Tartarin
1962
4.8
The Hideout
as Edouard
1962
0.0
Snobs!
as Morloch
1962
5.7
Accroche-toi, y'a du vent!
as Capitano Fornace
1962
0.0
The Seventh Juror
as Attorney General
1962
6.8
The Vendetta
as Bartoli
1962
5.4
Hitch-Hike
as le douanier belge
1962
5.5
Operation Gold Ingot
as Fellous
1962
0.0
Romulus and the Sabines
as Mezio
1961
5.0
The Girl of a Thousand Months
as Commendator Borgioli
1961
2.0
🎬
House of Sin
as Blanchin
1961
4.0
Les Livreurs
as Félix
1961
0.0
Long Live Henry IV... Long Live Love!
as Prior
1961
5.2
The Bear
as Chappuis
1960
6.0
Little Girls and High Finance
as Bank manager
1960
6.5
Le Olimpiadi dei mariti
1960
7.3
We Like It Cold
as von Krussendorf
1960
6.5
Love and the Frenchwoman
as Me Marcerou, avocat et ami du couple (segment "Le Divorce")
1960
4.5
Le pillole di Ercole
as Augusto
1960
0.0
Easy Come Easy Go
as Félix
1960
4.0
Long Live the Duke!
1960
0.0
Some Like It... Cold
as William Foster Valmorin, American
1960
5.5
Match contre la mort
as Mr. Pascal
1959
0.0
The Green Mare
as Ferdinand Haudouin
1959
5.5
Babette Goes to War
as Schulz
1959
5.5
Too Late to Love
as Camille, le patron du bistrot
1959
5.6
The Indestructible
as Francis Blanchard
1959
5.0
The Motorcycle Cops
as His Excellency Curacagua
1959
5.0
Discorama
as Self
1959
0.0
Toto in Paris
as Il maggiordomo (uncredited)
1958
6.2
The Little Professor
as General overseer
1958
2.7
A Dog, A Mouse and a Sputnik
as Chazot
1958
4.0
Anyone Can Kill Me
as La Bonbonne
1957
5.9
La Polka des menottes
as un voisin
1957
6.8
Honoré de Marseille
as Pasquale Marchetti
1956
5.7
Life is beautiful
as un voisin
1956
4.5
Cinépanorama
as Self
1956
8.0
Peek-a-boo
as Garibaldo Trouchet, le ténor / Un musicien
1954
4.9
Trust Me!
as Nicolas
1954
5.4
Midnight... Quai de Bercy
as M. Boulay, l'épicier libidineux
1953
6.5
Good Enough to Eat
as Gilles
1951
6.8
Ils ont vingt ans
as Michel Barbarin
1950
0.0
The Sad Sack
as Jean du Bois d'Ombelles
1950
0.0
The Killer is Listening
as Self
1948
1.0
Frédérica
as Ami de Gilbert
1942
4.0