Francis Blanche
Acting
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.
TV Shows(6)
Movies(119)
Les 100 vies de Francis Blanche
Self (archive footage)
2022
Pierre Dac et Francis Blanche : Le Meilleur du Parti d'en Rire
Lui-même
2020
Comiques de toujours (Vol. 1 à 4)
Self (archive footage)
2009
A Whale That Had a Toothache
Francis
1975
No Pockets in a Shroud
Nathaël Grissom
1974
Say it with Flowers
Gérard Rollain
1974
France, Incorporated
Pierre, the perverted financier
1974
OK Patron
Victor Hutin, Sophie's father
1974
By the Blood of Others
Doctor
1974
La Dernière Bourrée à Paris
Gaston Payrac
1973
The Edifying and Joyous Story of Colinot
Wanderer
1973
Le Solitaire
Norbert
1973
Racconti romani di una ex-novizia
Pietro l'Aretino
1973
I. You. They.
Darbon, le galeriste
1973
I've Had It
Mr. de Chatiez
1973
The Terror with Cross-Eyes
Commissioner Pigna
1972
The Eroticist
padre Scirer
1972
Scandal Man
Paluche
1972
La Grande Maffia
Modeste Miette
1971
Il furto è l'anima del commercio!?...
Sigfrid
1971
Qu'est-ce qui fait courir les crocodiles ?
Hector Grogenol
1971
Les Jambes en l'air
Hugon
1971
Are You Engaged to a Greek Sailor or an Airline Pilot?
Maurice Gombaud
1971
The Great Java
Auguste Kougloff / Augustin Colombani
1971
Alice au pays des merveilles
King of hearts
1970
Ces messieurs de la gâchette
Marco Lombardi
1970
Adieu Berthe
Léo Bertold
1970
The Stud
Tax collector Dupuis
1970
Poussez pas grand-père dans les cactus
Alphonse Ramier / Al Gregor
1969
Un merveilleux parfum d'oseille
Loïc de Kerfuntel
1969
Aux frais de la princesse
Achille
1969
Erotissimo
Le polyvalent
1969
Le bourgeois gentil mec
Spinosa
1969
Les gros malins
Francis Bertolde aka 'Le book'
1969
Faites donc plaisir aux amis
Maximiliano
1969
The Big Wash
Doctor Loupioc
1968
Salut Berthe !
Passerby with the pipe (uncredited)
1968
The Men in the Family
Strumberger
1968
Rita the Field Marshal
Captain Hans Vogel
1967
Loose in the Trigger
La Prudence
1967
The Great Gadget
Copec
1967
Belle de Jour
Mr. Adolphe
1967
Le canard en fer blanc
Le docteur Grego
1967
The Oldest Profession
The Doctor (segment "Aujourd'hui")
1967
Deux Romains en Gaule
Le druide inventeur de la potion d'invisibilité
1967
Order of the Daisy
L'inspecteur Maurice Leloup
1967
The Big Grasshopper
Gédéon
1967
Les enquiquineurs
Monsieur Achille Eloy
1966
Les malabars sont au parfum
Ivanov
1966
The Sleeping Sentinel
Constant
1966
Under Your Hat
Mario l'enchanteur
1965
Pas de caviar pour tante Olga
Dufour
1965
The Real Bargain
Paul Souflé
1965
Les baratineurs
Louis Dujardin
1965
Les Gorilles
Félix
1964
The Great Spy Chase
Boris Vassiliev
1964
Chance at Love
Adjutant (segment "Chance du guerrier, La")
1964
The Big Scare
1964
Les Pieds nickelés
Commissaire Lenoir
1964
Male Hunt
Nino Papatakis
1964
Champagne for Savages
Francis
1964
The World's Most Beautiful Swindlers
Mr. Humlaupt (segment "L'Homme qui vendit la tour Eiffel")
1964
Clémentine chérie
Nuisance at the Miss ceremony (uncredited)
1964
Requiem pour un caïd
Émile aka 'le Boxeur'
1964
Jaloux comme un tigre
Chauffeur
1964
Dandelions by the Roots
L'oncle Absalon, le savant farfelu
1964
Actualités télérévisées
Presenter
1964
The Black Tulip
Plantin
1964
Les Gros Bras
Mr. Pédro Andromèze
1963
Crooks in Clover
Maître Folace
1963
Sweet and Sour
Franz
1963
Thank Heaven for Small Favors
Chief Insp. Cucherat
1963
The Virgins
Mr. De Brétevielle
1963
People in Luck
M. Bricheton (segment "Le Repas gastronomique")
1963
The Abominable Man of Customs
Arnakos
1963
Who Stole the Body?
Édouard
1963
Tartarin de Tarascon
Antoine Tartarin
1962
The Hideout
Edouard
1962
Snobs!
Morloch
1962
Accroche-toi, y'a du vent!
Capitano Fornace
1962
The Seventh Juror
Le procureur général
1962
The Vendetta
Bartoli
1962
Hitch-Hike
le douanier belge
1962
Operation Gold Ingot
Fellous
1962
Romulus and the Sabines
Mezio
1961
The Girl of a Thousand Months
Commendator Borgioli
1961
House of Sin
Blanchin
1961
Les Livreurs
Félix
1961
Long Live Henry IV... Long Live Love!
Prior
1961
The Bear
Chappuis
1960
Little Girls and High Finance
Bank manager
1960
Le Olimpiadi dei mariti
1960
We Like It Cold
von Krussendorf
1960
Love and the Frenchwoman
Me Marcerou, avocat et ami du couple (segment "Le Divorce")
1960
Le pillole di Ercole
Augusto
1960
Easy Come Easy Go
Félix
1960
Long Live the Duke!
1960
Some Like It... Cold
William Foster Valmorin, American
1960
Match contre la mort
Mr. Pascal
1959
The Green Mare
Ferdinand Haudouin
1959
Babette Goes to War
Schulz
1959
Too Late to Love
Camille, le patron du bistrot
1959
The Indestructible
Francis Blanchard
1959
The Motorcycle Cops
His Excellency Curacagua
1959
Toto in Paris
Il maggiordomo (uncredited)
1958
The Little Professor
General overseer
1958
A Dog, A Mouse and a Sputnik
Chazot
1958
Anyone Can Kill Me
La Bonbonne
1957
La Polka des menottes
un voisin
1957
Honoré de Marseille
Pasquale Marchetti
1956
Life is beautiful
un voisin
1956
Peek-a-boo
Garibaldo Trouchet, le ténor / Un musicien
1954
Trust Me!
Nicolas
1954
Midnight... Quai de Bercy
M. Boulay, l'épicier libidineux
1953
Good Enough to Eat
Gilles
1951
Ils ont vingt ans
Michel Barbarin
1950
The Sad Sack
Jean du Bois d'Ombelles
1950
The Killer is Listening
Self
1948
Frédérica
Ami de Gilbert
1942