André Raimbourg , known as Bourvil , is a French actor, singer and comedian, born July 25, 1917 in Prétot-Vicquemare (Seine-Inférieure)> and died on September 23, 1970 in Paris (16> arrondissement).
Son of Norman farmers, he admires Fernandel and tries to become an artist too. At the beginning musician and singer of music hall and operetta, he knows the success at the Liberation with the song Les Crayons and by creating a caricatural role of Norman peasant and simpleton, then with other songs over two decades, like Bicycle, Fruit salad, A moonlight in Maubeuge and Tenderness. He is also the headliner of popular shows, including The Flower Road, Pacifico, La Bonne Planque and Ouah-Ouah.
In parallel, he quickly turns to the cinema, where he transposes his "comic-peasant", in comedies like Not so stupid (1946), King Pandora, The Rose of Madame Husson and Miquette and his mother (1950), The Three Musketeers (1953) or The Hussars (1955). His character evolves little by little, then his career takes a turn thanks to his dramatic role of an unemployed black market under the Occupation in The Traversée de Paris (1956), which earned him the price of interpretation of the Mostra from Venice.
From then on, he became a popular broadcaster, alternating dramas and comedies until his death in 1970, with many of his films establishing themselves as success stories of the time or becoming classics of the time. French cinema, such as Les Misérables and Le Miroir à 2 sides (1958), Le Bossu (1959), Le Capitan and Fortunat (1960), A funny parishioner, Le Magot by Josefa and La Cuisine au beurre (1963), La City of the Unspeakable Fear (1964), The Corniaud (1965), The Great Maws (1965), The Great Mop (1966), The Great Laundry (!) (1968), The Brain and The Christmas Tree (1969) ), or The Red Circle (1970)
