Jean Lefèvre - a genius simpleton

If someone does not immediately understand what kind of French actor this article will be discussed in, it is necessary to recall the history of gendarmes, beloved by the majority of spectators of the middle and older ages. Jean Lefebvre, the hero of our article, played Fugas there. Each of his roles is a small miracle, because in his characters he breathed life, gave them a piece of himself.

The beginning of the life path

On the third day of October 1919, a small boy appeared in the town of Valenciennes (France). He was given the name of Jean. Thus began the biography of the great French actor, whom the whole world recognized as Jean Lefevre. True, according to data from other sources, this event occurred a little later - in 1922.

At first, Jean dreamed of becoming a medic, but over time the dream changed. During professional training in medicine, a young man begins to sing. In addition, the young Lefevre falls in love with the theater and no longer thinks of life without a stage.

From a new hobby to a profession for life

After the end of the Second World War, the future actor becomes a regular visitor of lectures on theatrical art, where he taught Rene Simon. Jean's co-disciples were Pierre Mondi and Jacqueline Mayan. In addition, he was a conservatory student in his hometown and in Lille.

His career began as a singer in the most ordinary cabaret. And the debut in the cinema, thanks to which millions of people recognized him, took place much later, when Jean Lefebvre had already turned thirty-three.

Acquaintance with Dery and the debut in the theater

For several years, Jean Lefebvre, whose films are part of the treasury of French cinema, performed on various scaffolding, changing Parisian restaurants one by one. He told witty sketches and worked on the same stage with Jean Richard and Darrie Cole - the famous comedians of the time.

The favorite character of Lefebvre in his youth was an ordinary simpleton of the people, often drunk. But this character succeeded him very easily, the actor literally got used to the image.

Once in one of the restaurants the future celebrity of the world cinema Jean Lefevre brought together the French actor and director Robert Dery. The latter at one time managed to organize a theatrical and musical comic troupe called Branquignols. Soon these two dinosaurs of the French film industry found a common language, and Lefebvre became a full member of the troupe.

His debut in the shadow of the theatrical scenes began with a performance about the vineyards of the master. A little later, after exhausting and exhausting rehearsals, he played one of the roles in New York's Robert Derey's play "My Aunt's Pen." These works proved to be a significant help in his career as an actor, because they told him how to behave properly on stage, to give cues, to build mise-en-scenes. The actor has learned literally instantly grasp the whole essence of what is happening, quickly get used to the role and remember the long monologues.

Life in the cinema

For twenty years - from 1960 to 1980 - Jean Lefebvre, biography Which is not very known to the majority of viewers, played the main and secondary roles in more than ninety films. Basically, in the genre of comedy, beloved by many viewers.

He worked with some of the most famous directors of the twentieth century - Claude Vital, Serge Corber, Yves Robert, Jean Giraud Robert Lamour and others. And the partners of Lefebvre on the set were recognized and beloved by the people of the stars of the French cinema: Jacqueline Bisset, Miu-Miu, Pierre Mondi, Louis de Funes, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Michel Galabrew ...

Jean Lefebvre for his long life managed to star in about one hundred and forty television and movies from several countries - France, Britain, Italy, Spain, Austria, Canada. And in 2000 he even became a member of the jury of the International Film Festival, held in Berlin.

Most of his roles were the roles of the second plan. He was the character who took the lines from Michel Halabrew, Louis de Funes or Robert Lamoure. His role in the movie can be called "typical, ordinary average Frenchman." The heroes of Lefebvre are always very trusting, naive, are usually a little out of themselves. As a rule, they have a sad nose hanging, and with their heavy eyelids they look like a beaten dog.

Favorite roles

One of the few films in which his role was the main one was called "The Idiot in Paris", filmed in 1966. This title succinctly and accurately could characterize the actor's niche occupied by Lefebvre. The character of the great actor is a rural fool named Gubi, who was not so kindly neighbors-jokers thrown in the center of the capital fatally drunk. This role of Jean Lefebvre was one of the three favorites of the French heroes of this actor.

Two more roles from this three were in comic sagas, which in France enjoyed exactly the same love as in Russia the comedy of Leonid Gaidai. In the epic of Jean Giraud about the adventures of the gendarme from Saint-Tropez, Jean Lefèvre, whose photo was printed all the newspapers and magazines of those decades, was the unlucky police officer Lucien Fuass. And in three films by Robert Lamoure about the "Seventh Company" - about fools who were lost during the German offensive in the summer of 1940 and constantly escape from captivity in order to almost immediately be caught - his character was the telephone operator Pithivier.

People's Actor

Replicas of Jean Lefevre have firmly entered urban folklore. Spectators adored him, and critics ignored, considering the embodiment of vulgarity. The actor did not skimp on the answer word. He stated that those who are awarded the title of laureates for the Cesar award should be determined only by the audience. Was outraged that the festival in Cannes is never attended by comedies.

Until very old Jean Lefebvre was faithful to the Boulevard Theater. Each performance with his participation stood about seven hundred performances. The actor managed not only to work in the cinema and theater, but also recorded records and led a stormy personal life, marrying four times.

Jean Lefevre passed away on July 9, 2004 in Marrakech. The blame was a heart attack. And the whole world, worshiping his talent, learned about this not from the family, as it usually happens, but from the owner of the restaurant, where the actor so loved to celebrate his birthdays ...

Such was the magnificent Jean Lefevre. Actors of this generation always with great attention and respect treated their work, every movement on the stage or in the frame was carefully verified and worked out. With each new character they lived another, unlike their own, life, but giving each character a piece of himself.