Francis Blanche
Acting • Born 1921-07-20 – Died 1974-07-06
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.
Filmography
125 credits
Male Hunt
Movie • 1964
Nino Papatakis
The Seventh Juror
Movie • 1962
Attorney General
Le Olimpiadi dei mariti
Movie • 1960
The Eroticist
Movie • 1972
padre Scirer
The Great Spy Chase
Movie • 1964
Boris Vassiliev
Crooks in Clover
Movie • 1963
Maître Folace
Thank Heaven for Small Favors
Movie • 1963
Chief Insp. Cucherat
Sweet and Sour
Movie • 1963
Franz
People in Luck
Movie • 1963
M. Bricheton (segment "Le Repas gastronomique")
The Big Wash
Movie • 1968
Doctor Loupioc
Erotissimo
Movie • 1969
Le polyvalent
The Virgins
Movie • 1963
Mr. de Brétevielle
The Green Mare
Movie • 1959
Ferdinand Haudouin
The Great Java
Movie • 1971
Auguste Kougloff / Augustin Colombani
Rita the Field Marshal
Movie • 1967
Captain Hans Vogel
Peek-a-boo
Movie • 1954
Garibaldo Trouchet, le ténor / Un musicien
Honoré de Marseille
Movie • 1956
Pasquale Marchetti
The Men in the Family
Movie • 1968
Strumberger
The Big Grasshopper
Movie • 1967
Gédéon
Some Like It... Cold
Movie • 1960
William Foster Valmorin, American
The Stud
Movie • 1970
Tax collector Dupuis
Ils ont vingt ans
Movie • 1950
Michel Barbarin
Champagne for Savages
Movie • 1964
Francis
Loose in the Trigger
Movie • 1967
La Prudence
Hitch-Hike
Movie • 1962
le douanier belge
Good Enough to Eat
Movie • 1951
Gilles
The World's Most Beautiful Swindlers
Movie • 1964
Mr. Humlaupt (segment "L'Homme qui vendit la tour Eiffel")
Dandelions by the Roots
Movie • 1964
L'oncle Absalon, le savant farfelu
The Big Scare
Movie • 1964
Les Pieds nickelés
Movie • 1964
Commissaire Lenoir
Love and the Frenchwoman
Movie • 1960
Me Marcerou, avocat et ami du couple (segment "Le Divorce")
Snobs!
Movie • 1962
Morloch
Les gros malins
Movie • 1969
Francis Bertolde aka 'Le book'
Les 100 vies de Francis Blanche
Movie • 2022
Self (archive footage)
La Grande Maffia
Movie • 1971
Modeste Miette
Order of the Daisy
Movie • 1967
L'inspecteur Maurice Leloup
Trust Me!
Movie • 1954
Nicolas
Tartarin de Tarascon
Movie • 1962
Antoine Tartarin
Who Stole the Body?
Movie • 1963
Édouard
Les Gros Bras
Movie • 1963
Mr. Pédro Andromèze
I've Had It
Movie • 1973
Mr. de Chatiez
The Vendetta
Movie • 1962
Bartoli
Les Gorilles
Movie • 1964
Félix
The Hideout
Movie • 1962
Edouard
Le canard en fer blanc
Movie • 1967
Le docteur Grego
Life is beautiful
Movie • 1956
un voisin
Are You Engaged to a Greek Sailor or an Airline Pilot?
Movie • 1971
Maurice Gombaud
The Edifying and Joyous Story of Colinot
Movie • 1973
Wanderer
No Pockets in a Shroud
Movie • 1974
Nathaël Grissom
A Whale That Had a Toothache
Movie • 1975
Francis
The Bear
Movie • 1960
Chappuis
The Abominable Man of Customs
Movie • 1963
Arnakos
Il furto è l'anima del commercio!?...
Movie • 1971
Sigfrid
La Dernière Bourrée à Paris
Movie • 1973
Gaston Payrac
Les malabars sont au parfum
Movie • 1966
Ivanov
I. You. They.
Movie • 1973
Darbon, le galeriste
Racconti romani di una ex-novizia
Movie • 1973
Pietro l'Aretino
Too Late to Love
Movie • 1959
Camille, le patron du bistrot
Poussez pas grand-père dans les cactus
Movie • 1969
Alphonse Ramier / Al Gregor
The Indestructible
Movie • 1959
Francis Blanchard
La Polka des menottes
Movie • 1957
un voisin
Say it with Flowers
Movie • 1974
Gérard Rollain
The Little Professor
Movie • 1958
General overseer
Requiem pour un caïd
Movie • 1964
Émile aka 'le Boxeur'
Match contre la mort
Movie • 1959
Mr. Pascal
The Motorcycle Cops
Movie • 1959
His Excellency Curacagua
Long Live the Duke!
Movie • 1960
A Dog, A Mouse and a Sputnik
Movie • 1958
Chazot
Accroche-toi, y'a du vent!
Movie • 1962
Capitano Fornace
Pas de caviar pour tante Olga
Movie • 1965
Dufour
The Real Bargain
Movie • 1965
Paul Souflé
Long Live Henry IV... Long Live Love!
Movie • 1961
Prior
The Oldest Profession
Movie • 1967
The Doctor (segment "Aujourd'hui")
Alice au pays des merveilles
Movie • 1970
King of hearts
Salut Berthe !
Movie • 1968
Passerby with the pipe (uncredited)
Aux frais de la princesse
Movie • 1969
Achille
Scandal Man
Movie • 1972
Paluche
Faites donc plaisir aux amis
Movie • 1969
Maximiliano
Adieu Berthe
Movie • 1970
Léo Bertold
Little Girls and High Finance
Movie • 1960
Bank manager
Belle de Jour
Movie • 1967
Mr. Adolphe
House of Sin
Movie • 1961
Blanchin
Ces messieurs de la gâchette
Movie • 1970
Marco Lombardi
Midnight... Quai de Bercy
Movie • 1953
M. Boulay, l'épicier libidineux
The Great Gadget
Movie • 1967
Copec
Operation Gold Ingot
Movie • 1962
Fellous
By the Blood of Others
Movie • 1974
Doctor
Le Solitaire
Movie • 1973
Norbert
Babette Goes to War
Movie • 1959
Schulz
The Sleeping Sentinel
Movie • 1966
Constant
Qu'est-ce qui fait courir les crocodiles ?
Movie • 1971
Hector Grogenol
The Sad Sack
Movie • 1950
Jean du Bois d'Ombelles
The Girl of a Thousand Months
Movie • 1961
Commendator Borgioli
Romulus and the Sabines
Movie • 1961
Mezio
Le bourgeois gentil mec
Movie • 1969
Spinosa
We Like It Cold
Movie • 1960
von Krussendorf
Jaloux comme un tigre
Movie • 1964
Chauffeur
Under Your Hat
Movie • 1965
Mario l'enchanteur
Les baratineurs
Movie • 1965
Louis Dujardin
Easy Come Easy Go
Movie • 1960
Félix
Les Livreurs
Movie • 1961
Félix
Un merveilleux parfum d'oseille
Movie • 1969
Loïc de Kerfuntel
OK Patron
Movie • 1974
Victor Hutin, Sophie's father
Anyone Can Kill Me
Movie • 1957
La Bonbonne
Clémentine chérie
Movie • 1964
Nuisance at the Miss ceremony (uncredited)
Toto in Paris
Movie • 1958
Il maggiordomo (uncredited)
Le pillole di Ercole
Movie • 1960
Augusto
Les Jambes en l'air
Movie • 1971
Hugon
Les enquiquineurs
Movie • 1966
Monsieur Achille Eloy
The Killer is Listening
Movie • 1948
Self
Actualités télérévisées
Movie • 1964
Presenter
Frédérica
Movie • 1942
Ami de Gilbert
The Terror with Cross-Eyes
Movie • 1972
Commissioner Pigna
Comiques de toujours (Vol. 1 à 4)
Movie • 2009
Self (archive footage)
The Black Tulip
Movie • 1964
Plantin
Deux Romains en Gaule
Movie • 1967
Le druide inventeur de la potion d'invisibilité
Chance at Love
Movie • 1964
Adjutant (segment "Chance du guerrier, La")
Pierre Dac et Francis Blanche : Le Meilleur du Parti d'en Rire
Movie • 2020
Lui-même
France, Incorporated
Movie • 1974
Pierre, the perverted financier
À bout portant
TV • 1968
Self
Samedi soir
TV • 1971
Self
Midi trente
TV • 1972
Self
Le Bonheur conjugal
TV • 1965
Le patron du restaurant
Cinépanorama
TV • 1956
Self
Discorama
TV • 1959
Self