André Maranne | |
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Born |
André Gaston Maillol 1926 (age 90–91) Toulouse, France |
Nationality | French |
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 1956–1991 |
André Maranne (born 1926) is a French actor, best known for playing Frenchmen in English language roles in the UK from the mid-1950s.
Born in Toulouse, France, Maranne's most prominent recurring role was Sergeant François Chevalier in six of The Pink Panther films, alongside Peter Sellers and Herbert Lom. Before the Pink Panther, he appeared as a French officer in The War Lover (1962) and cameoed in the James Bond movie Thunderball (1965). He also appeared in such diverse television programmes as Jason King ("Wanna buy a television series?", 1971), Fawlty Towers (as André in the 1975 "Gourmet Night" episode), Lord Peter Wimsey ("Clouds of Witness", 1972), Yes Minister (as European Agricultural Commissioner Maurice, proponent of the "euro-sausage", in "Party Games", 1984, the episode in which Jim Hacker becomes UK Prime Minister), All Creatures Great and Small and Doctor Who (The Moonbase, 1967).
Maranne was also a co-presenter of four in the French teaching programme, Bonjour Françoise on the BBC in the 1960s and acted in all 8 episodes of La Chasse au Trésor (1967) as well as all 24 episodes of Ensemble-French for Beginners in the 1970s, also for the BBC.