Biography: life and films
His origins were very humble. He was born in 1917, in Pretot-Vicquemare, France, his true name being André Raimbourg. After his father was killed in active service during the First World War, his family moved to the Normandy town of Bourville (from which he would later derive his stage name). Although he was a promising scholar, he was somewhat undisciplined and had a penchant for tomfoolery. He left school at 15 to work in a patisserie.
From an early age, Raimbourg showed a passion for entertaining people and performing music, playing the harmonica and the cornet in village concerts. During the Second World War, he joined the army as a trumpet player. A great admirer of the comic actor and singer Fernandel, he adopted the stage name Andrel for his own regimental performances.
Left the army in 1940, he returned to Paris. He was engaged as an accordionist to accompany Bordas, the famous beared woman. He then worked as a baker, and then a plumber, without success. He claimed that, in the latter job, he caused more damage than the great floods of 1910.
For the next four years, he endured hardship, doing odd jobs to make ends meet whilst he started writing and performing songs under his new stage name Bourvil. He appeared in various night clubs in Paris and married Jeanne Lefrique in 1943, to whom he would remain a devoted husband.
In 1944, Bourvil was engaged by Michel Fortin to replace the comedian Paulin, and created the character for which he is probably best known, the naïve, gawkish peasant farmer. Tino Rossi's agent, Pierre-Louis Guérin, then engaged Bourvil for a one week contract at another night club, but he was so successful that the contract was extended for a year. Another break came when Jean-Jacques Vital, a major influence in the world of show business in France, engaged Bourvil to appear on his show Pêle-Mêle for Radio Luxembourg.
By 1946, Bourvil had achieved stardom and was a household name in France. In this year, he began recording his first 78 records with Pathé, his monologues and songs. The latter included such hits as: “Timichiné la pou pou”, “Houpetta la bella” and “Les crayons”. He had earlier performed the latter song in his first film, Jean Dréville's 1945 film, La Ferme du pendu. This would be followed by similar cameo-like performances in subsequent films. It was by this curious route that Bourvil, a popular music hall entertainer, found his way into the cinema.
Bourvil's early film roles were simple extensions of the character he played in his music hall performances, which offered little opportunity for him to build a reputation as an actor. That changed with Claude Autant-Lara's celebrated 1956 film, La Traversée de Paris, in which Bourvil played a lead role opposite Jean Gabin (by then a living legend of French cinema). The film established Bourvil's credentials as an actor and opened up a whole new career in which he would become increasingly popular in the 1950s and 1960s.
Bourvil's best film roles were probably the comedies in which he would play the brow-beaten innocent, a typical, mild mannered working class man who, against the odds, would triumph over whatever adverersity Fate happened to throw in his path. His greatest successes were undoubtedly with Gérard Oury's films of the mid 1960s, Le Corniaud and La Grande Vadrouille, in which he starred with another comic genius, Louis de Funès.
In 1968, Bourvil was diagnosed as suffering from a terminal bone-wasting disease. Against medical advice, he continued working. However, in 1970, shortly after finishing work on his last film, Le mur de l'Atlantique , he died. He was aged 53. He left a legacy which included some of the finest examples of entertainment in popular French culture.
© James Travers 2002
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