The Knight of the Legion of Honor and a César Award winner lived in his own castle and had a personal filmography of 150 movies. However, to land the roles that made him famous, the creator of Inspector Juve and gendarme Cruchot had to appear in hundreds of films where he remained unnoticed. Like the biblical Moses, the actor, screenwriter, and director spent over forty years on his journey to professional success, learning to view fame merely as “Fortune’s smile.” He never regretted the slow pace of his career and was grateful for the experiences life offered him: “If I had to live my life again, I would choose to walk the same path.”
The Son of Spanish Romeo and Juliet
The script of this life turned out to be cinematic from the very beginning. France’s future pride was destined to be a hereditary Spanish aristocrat who knew nothing about his roots or family history.
Louis Germain David de Funès de Galarza was born on July 31, 1914, in the French town of Courbevoie to a family of immigrants from Seville. His parents were a Spanish-Portuguese couple who fled home for love, much like classic Romeo and Juliet. In 1904, they had to move to France to marry, as their families opposed the union due to longstanding conflicts. In France, the couple became parents to three children, but in the 1930s, the head of the family left them under dramatic circumstances, faking his own tragic death to escape the country.
As befitted a Spanish aristocrat from the de Galarza lineage, Louis’s father, Carlos Luis de Funès, was an educated man, but his legal education was of no use in France. To make a living, he turned to cutting precious stones in a jewelry store. His son, affectionately nicknamed Fufu, helped his colorblind father identify the hues of the gems, contributing to the family’s income. While learning the serious trade in his father’s workshop, Fufu also mastered languages (having known Spanish, English, and French since childhood), drawing, piano, and dramatic arts.
Louis as a child
Not particularly successful in school, young Louis de Funès humorously impersonated teachers and neighbors, and later, adult colleagues. The positive reactions to his antics from Leonor de Funès (her maiden name was Soto Reguera) were the best support for her son’s talent: the actor would later refer to his mother as his first mentor in comedy.
In Search of Destiny
Louis gained early theatrical experience while still in college. He played his first role as a gendarme in a school performance celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Jules-Ferry de Coulommiers institution. After college, he attended the Condorcet high school and a professional fur school, enrolling at his older brother’s suggestion. Although he was expelled from the fur school shortly after, the qualifications he gained were enough for him to work independently in workshops.
Louis also worked as an accountant and decorator, and in 1932, he enrolled in a film and photography technical school that trained cameramen. Witnessing the filming process from the inside, the future actor formed a bond with the camera, which would later serve him well in his career. However, he also did not finish this technical school.
Louis de Funès, 1930s
The next creative stages for the talented young man included working as a model in a department store and as a pianist in a cabaret. Once again, the gifted Louis, who had also been a draftsman, tailor, window dresser, delivery boy, milkman, shoeshiner, tinsmith, and traveling salesman, preferred to earn a living playing jazz at the “Madeleine” club in the Pigalle district of Paris. It wasn’t long before the expressive musician with a knack for facial expressions became a favorite among the audience.
Louis de Funès with his first wife
One day, the popular performer, who endlessly joked while playing, caught the attention of tennis player Germaine Louise Elodie Carruayé, who became Louis de Funès’s first wife in 1936. In this union, their first son, Daniel (who passed away in 2017), was born on July 12, 1937, but the couple separated three years later. Their divorce was finalized in 1942 at the request of the actor’s new partner. It was during this time that 28-year-old Louis de Funès enrolled in a drama course with René Simon in Paris, where he met his future second wife, secretary Jeanne Augustin de Barthelemy de Maupassant.
A Family for Life
By the time he married in 1943, Louis, now divorced, was working as a solfeggio teacher in occupied Paris, marrying the great-niece of Charles No de Maupassant (the connection to the famous writer Guy de Maupassant seems to have been a journalistic invention). This second marriage proved to be stronger than the first: it was a choice for a lifetime. Despite a future 13-year affair with a young radio host, Louis de Funès remained with his second wife until his death in 1983.
In this second marriage, their sons Patrick (who became a doctor) and Olivier (despite inheriting his father’s acting talent and experience from their joint film projects, chose a career as a civil aviation pilot and flew Airbus A3 for Air France until retirement) were born in 1944 and 1949, respectively.
Over the more than forty years of this marriage, the artist achieved personal and professional success. As her husband’s manager, his wife played a significant role in his career, influencing decisions about filming, selecting roles, and negotiating contracts.
Louis de Funès with his wife Jeanne Augustin and their sons
Knowing about her husband’s long-standing friendship with his theatrical partner, conservatory graduate Claude Jansac, the foresighted wife befriended Louis’s colleague and “approved” their on-screen duo: present during the shoots, Jeanne kept the situation on set “under control.” The film process benefited from this arrangement: the elegant actress, playing the “permanent wife” of de Funès’s characters, made this pairing a unique phenomenon during the actor’s creative peak.
Jeanne also suggested striking young partners for her husband, believing it added charm to the short, older balding man, whom the merciless Catherine Deneuve once told reporters she “wouldn’t even consider for a respectable reason.”
However, even at the height of his fame, not even such a perceptive “better half” as Jeanne de Funès could protect Louis from “gray hairs” and “temptations.” A cocktail party at the Paris Radio House in 1970 brought the 56-year-old actor together with 27-year-old journalist Masha Beranger. Despite their mutual attraction, the star of “Fantomas” honestly warned his new friend that he would not leave his family. This love triangle brought no happiness to anyone, yet the “culprit of the situation” never dared to end the tumultuous affair. “Reputation and money mean nothing,” Louis de Funès believed. “What matters is a good heart. Those who lack it are worth nothing.”
The Hard Road to the Top
With the arrival of audience recognition in the 1960s, the actor appeared in three to four films a year. The star of the films featuring Commissioner Juve and the hero of the Fantomas trilogy was a directorial discovery of André Hunebelle. Significant films in the seasoned comedian’s biography also included Gérard Oury’s “The Sucker” and “The Great Stroll.” The actor, whose role had recently, in his own words, been to “open the door for Pierre Lark and then close it,” found himself “awakened to fame” at the peak of his life. His fruitful collaboration with director Jean Girault resulted in leading roles in the comedy “Pique-Pique” and the popular series of humorous stories about “The Gendarme of Saint-Tropez.” Yet even after the success of “Fantomas,” the actor was convinced that audiences would soon forget him: “There are many people more interesting than me, for I am an ordinary person who just got lucky.”
Louis de Funès as a gendarme
The artist did not complain about his fate or the slow pace of his career. “This delay allowed me to master my profession better,” de Funès said. “After all, the acting techniques I found in episodic roles became useful later in leading roles. And now I appreciate my father’s words about a career, which he compared to climbing stairs, where you need to stop to gather strength for the next ascent.”
After suffering two heart attacks in 1975, Louis de Funès heeded doctors’ advice to take a break from filming and moved to the family estate inherited from his wife—a luxurious mid-17th-century residence, Château de Clermont. The de Funès castle boasted 30 rooms, 366 windows, an ancient pantry with outbuildings, and a private historical chapel. The estate included 30 hectares of parkland and 17 hectares of vineyards. In his personal rose garden beside the castle on the outskirts of Nantes, the artist cultivated roses named after him: breeders named the optimistic orange variety “Louis de Funès.”
Château de Clermont
After restoring his health away from the hustle and bustle of Paris (for a time, de Funès avoided the phone and spoke only with the gardener), the actor later accepted Claude Zidi’s offer to star in the film “Wing or Thigh.” He went on to appear in several new films and even tried his hand at directing (which critics deemed modest).
In 1982, the actor was invited to participate in the sixth film by Jean Girault from the beloved audience cycle “The Gendarme and the Gendarmettes,” but during filming, the director passed away, and this loss was a devastating blow for the artist.
The actor’s last words were a confession to his wife: “I feel lonely in my room.” On January 27, 1983, Louis de Funès succumbed to another heart attack, one he could not survive. Three heart attacks in a man who brought joy to others reminded the world that even a clown has a heart.