Lefebvre, Jean

(1922-2004)

   Actor. Jean Lefebvre made his screen debut in Maurice Cam's Bouquet de joie (1952). He went on to make films over a period of more than thirty years. Although he is often best remembered for his comic films, he played in a number of dramatic films and romantic films including Jean Stelli's Une fille sur la route (1952), Maurice de Canonge's L'Amour toujours l'amour (1952), Henri-Georges Clouzot's Les Diaboliques (1955), Gilles Grangier's Gas-Oil (1955), Roger Vadim's Et Dieu . . . créa la femme (1956), Richard Pottier's La Châtelaine du Liban (1956) and Tabarin (1958), Yves Allegret's Quand la femme s'en mêle (1957) and La Fille de Hamburg (1958), André Berthomieu's En légitime défense (1958), and a number of Raoul André films, including Cherchez la femme (1955), L'Homme et l'enfant (1956), and La Polka des menottes (1957).

   Lefebvre's early comic roles were in films such as Michel Boisrond's Cette sacrée gamine (1956), Raymond Bernard's Le Septième commandement (1957), and Marc Allegret's Un drôle de dimanche (1958). However, it was not until the 1960s that he began doing comic films with any regularity. He went on to appear in Jean Chérasse's La Vendetta (1961) and Un clair de lune à Maubeuge (1962), Robert Dhéry's La Belle Américaine (1961) and Allez France! (1964), Philippe de Broca's Les Veinards (1962), Girault's Faites sauter la banque! (1963), Le Gendarme de St. Tropez (1964), Le Gendarme à New York (1966), and Le Gendarme se marie (1968), Yves Robert's Bébert et l'omnibus (1963), Jean Boyer's Relaxe-toi chérie (1964), Jean-Paul Le Chanois's Monsieur (1964), Georges Lautner's Les Tonton flingeurs (1963), Les Bons vivants (1965), codirected with Grangier, Ne nous fâchons pas (1966), Quelques messieurs trop tranquilles (1973), Pas de problème (1975), and Ils sont fous ces sorciers (1978), Léo Joannen's Trois enfants . . . dans le désordre (1966), Robert Lamoureux's Mais où est donc passé la septième compagnie (1973), On a retrouvé la septième compagnie (1975), and La septième compagnie au clair de lune (1977). He also appeared in numerous television films and television series.

   Historical Dictionary of French Cinema by Dayna Oscherwitz & Mary Ellen Higgins