Gainsbourg, Serge

(Lucien Ginzburg / April 2, 1928, Paris, France - March 2, 1991, Paris, France)

   The son of Jewish Russian parents who settled in France after the Bolshevik Revolution, he intended to become a painter and attended the Beaux-Arts school courses. Judging severely his own artistic work, he renounced his true passion and earned his living as a cabaret piano player. Influenced by Boris Vian, he decided to write and perform songs. From 1958 to his death, he was at the same time one of the most popular and much-debated French singers and songwriters. He composed about fifty film scores (from 1959 L'Eau à la Bouche / UK and USA: A Game for Six Lovers, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, to 1992 Tous les Garçons, short, Etienne Faure) and played more than forty supporting roles on-screen (from 1959 Voulez-vous danser avec moi? / Sexy Girl / UK: Come Dance with Me / USA: Come Dance with Me!, Michel Boisrond, to 1990 Stan the Flasher, Serge Gainsbourg), including a couple of sword-and-sandal flicks in which he portrayed memorable baddies (1960 La rivolta degli schiavi / Rebelion de los esclavos / Die Sklaven Roms / USA: Revolt of the Slaves, Nunzio Malasomma, Italy / Spain / West Germany; 1961 Sansone / Samson contre Hercule / USA: Samson, Gianfranco Parolini, Italy / France; 1962 La furia die Ercole / Hercule se déchaîne / USA: The Fury of Hercules / US TV: The Fury of Her­cules, Gianfranco Parolini, Italy / France) and Abraham Polonsky's Romance of a Horsethief / Le Roman d'un Voleur de Chevaux (USA / France / Yugoslavia, 1971). He died of a heart attack at age sixty-two. From 1968 to 1980, he was the companion of actress and singer Jane Birkin (b. 1946). Their daughter is actress Charlotte Gainsbourg (b. 1971).

 Filmography

1976 ◘ Je t'aime, moi non plus / UK and USA: I Love You, I Don't (also screenwriter, dialogist, com­poser)

1980 ◘ Le Physique et le Figuré (short)

1983 ◘ Equateur (also screenwriter, adapter, dialogist, composer; France / Gabon)

1986 ◘ Charlotte For Ever (also screenwriter, dialogist, actor, composer)

1990 ◘ Stan the Flasher (also screenwriter, dialogist, actor)

 Television Filmography

1982 ◘ Cinéma, Cinémas (short; Remake Scarface)