Louis de Funès

Louis de Funès was a French actor and comedian, born in 1914 in Courbevoie and died in 1983. After years as a jazz pianist and a long run of small film roles, he reached stardom in his late forties with Pouic-Pouic and Le gendarme de Saint-Tropez, the first of a series of six gendarme comedies directed by Jean Girault. Teamed with Bourvil in Le Corniaud and La Grande Vadrouille, he took part in the biggest box office success in French film history, and he later led films such as Fantômas, La Folie des grandeurs, L'aile ou la cuisse and a screen version of Molière's The Miser. His fast, tic-filled, excitable style earned him the nickname the man with forty faces per minute, while off screen he was known as shy and reserved. Two museums are dedicated to him, one at the Château de Clermont near Nantes and one in Saint-Raphaël.