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Death date. Gender identity. Male Female Non-binary Other. Adult names. Exclude Include. His father, named Carlos Luis de Funes de Galarza, was a former lawyer of Seville, Spain, who became a diamond cutter.
He dropped out of school and worked various jobs, mostly as a jazz pianist at Pigalle, making his customers laugh every time he made a grimace.
He studied acting for one year at the Simon acting school. During the occupation of Paris in the Second World War, he continued his piano studies at a music school, where he fell in love with a secretary, named Jeanne de Maupassant, a grand-niece of writer Guy de Maupassant. She had fallen in love with "the young man who played jazz like god"; they married in , and had two sons born in and His wife and Daniel Gelin encouraged him until he managed to overcome his rejection.
He made his film debut in , at the age of 31, and went on playing about one hundred film roles in the next twenty years. He brilliantly portrayed a funny French policeman, whose hilarious hyperactivity, uncontrolled anger, and sardonic laughter produced a highly comic effect. He also continued to play on stage during his career as a film star, and was acclaimed for his stage works in classic French theatre.
