Line Renaud (1928), is a French singer, stage and screen actress, and AIDS activist. In 1946 Renaud started acting in film and still does so. Her singing skills were often at the heart of her roles. Renaud’s best known film is Dany Boon's comedy Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis (2008). This comedy lead to several new roles.
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 196. Photo: Sam Lévin.
French promotion card by Publicis / Pathé Marconi. Photo: Sam Lévin.
Line Renaud was born Jacqueline Enté in Pont-de-Nieppe in the north of France in 1928. Her father was a truck driver, her mother a steno typist. Because of her father's activity as a trumpeter in the local brass band, she got into contact with music. At age seven, she won an amateur contest. During the Second World War, her father was mobilised and prisoner of war for five years, so she was raised by her her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother.
Her girlfriends called her "the commander" because she knew what she wanted and you always had to listen to her. Having failed at the age of 14 in the Primary School Certificate, she was spotted at the entrance examination at the Lille Conservatory: the very evening of her audition, the director of Radio-Lille suggested that she joined his orchestra.
The 16-years-old made herself known under the name of Jacqueline Ray, singing the songs of well-known composer Louis 'Loulou' Gasté. She moved to Paris in 1945 and landed her first engagement at the Folies-Belleville.
Through Josette Daydé, she met her songwriter 'Loulou' Gasté, twenty years older than her. He became her mentor and made her take a new stage name. She chose Renaud, borrowing from her grandmother Marguerite Renard her surname, and changing one letter. In 1947, she recorded 'Ma cabane au Canada', which received the Grand Prix du Disque in 1949. In 1950, she married Loulou Gasté, who remained her husband until his death in 1995.
Line Renaud continued her success with titles such as 'Étoile des neiges' (1950), 'Ma p'tite folie' (1952), 'Mademoiselle d'Armentières' (1952), and 'Le Chien dans la vitrine' (1952) whose barking was done by the famous French voice-over Roger Carel, as he explained during his visit to the Tribunal des flagrants délires in 1980.
French postcard. Photo: Sam Lévin. Editions du Globe, Paris, No. 146.
In 1954 Line Renaud sang at the Moulin Rouge, collecting several prizes that year, causing Edith Piaf's jealousy. At the Moulin Rouge, she met Bob Hope. She left for the United States, and subsequently appeared in five episodes of The Bob Hope Show in the US. During this trip, she also sang at the theatres of New York and Los Angeles, and at the Ed Sullivan Show. In a duet with Dean Martin, she sang 'Relaxez-vous' as ‘Relax ay voo’. At the end of 1955, she was the first French singer to sing a Rock and Roll song: 'Tweedle Dee' by Lavern Baker.
In 1959, she became a revue leader at the Casino de Paris, then she was engaged in Dunes, a casino in Las Vegas between 1963 and 1965. She also sang in London. Frequenting Nate Jacobson, the founder of Caesar’s Palace at Las Vegas, and her lover for 18 years, she was also involved in the creation of this hotel-casino in terms of decoration and the auditorium.
In April 1960, she became Johnny Hallyday's godmother for his first television appearance on Aimée Mortimer's show L'école des vedettes. In the 1970s, she presented on television the 'Line Directe' show. In the same decade, she was the producer of Tony Bennett's shows for the Kings Castle in Las Vegas.
In the 1980s, she produced the television show Telle est Line on Antenne 2, and began a theatre career. In the same decade, she sang 'Le Soir' with Dalida, of whom she was a very close friend.
In the 1990s, while the casino hotel Paris Las Vegas was planned, she contacted the mayor of Paris Jean Tibéri, in order to authorise the construction of a replica of the Eiffel Tower on the building. She became artistic director of the establishment and invited Catherine Deneuve and Charles Aznavour for the inauguration in 1999, while singing on stage with Michel Legrand.
French postcard by Editions du Globe, no. 350. Photo: Studio Harcourt.
In 1985, Line Renaud created l'Association des Artistes Contre le Sida and organised televised art events which enabled her to raise funds for helping AIDS scientific research in France. She is the vice-president of the association Sidaction. In 2009, she condemned the statements of Pope Benedict XVI, who claimed condoms promoted behaviour which causes AIDS.
Renaud was president of the jury of the Miss France 2009 election. Ten years later, December 2018, she renewed the experience by presiding the jury of Miss France 2019.
After thirty years of absence, she returned to singing and recorded a new album, entitled 'Rue Washington' (2010), in reference to the recording studio Labomatic located in this street. Directed by Dominique Blanc-Francard, the album includes two duets, the first with Johnny Hallyday, 'Un monde merveilleux', a cover of 'What a Wonderful World', the second with Mylène Farmer, 'C'est pas l'heure', with words by Farmer and music by Laurent Boutonnat. Famous names such as Julien Clerc, Michel Delpech, and Salvatore Adamo, collaborated on this project.
The song 'Torrents d'amour' from the album ranked 24th in the bestseller list at its release in November 2010. On 24 and 25 May 2011, Line Renaud performed for the first time in her career, at the Olympia in Paris.
In October 2017, she opened a street bearing her name in Las Vegas. The path, located near the mythical Strip, the gigantic artery that runs through the city, provides access to a secondary entrance to the casino Caesars Palace. The Line Renaud Road is not far from the streets bearing the names of his friends Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin.
French postcard by Editions du Globe, no. 218. Photo: Teddy Piaz, Paris.
French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 362. Photo: Ch. Vandamme, Paris.
In 1946, Line Renaud started acting in films and she still does so. Her singing skills were often at the heart of her roles. Her first part was that of the singer singing 'Tant que tu m'aimeras' in La Foire aux chimères/Devil and the Angel (Pierre Chenal, 1946), starring Madeleine Sologne and Erich von Stroheim.
She had a small part in Une belle garce/A beautiful bitch (Jacques Daroy, 1948) featuring Ginette Leclerc, and played herself in the documentary Au fil des ondes/Over the waves (Pierre Gautherin, 1951).
Renaud became the star of Ils sont dans les vignes/They are in the vineyards... (Robert Vernay, 1952), a musical comedy about a salesman of a non-alcoholic drink, who tries to set up market right in the Burgundy wine area. Renaud is the daughter of the local bar owner and the love interest of the salesman.
In addition to playing herself in more films of the 1950s, she again played the daughter of the local bar owner in La Madelon (Jean Boyer, 1955), in which she has to fight the too brash soldiers during the First World War, but she is a tough girl, so she manages. They go wild for her song 'Madelon', which becomes a kind of hymn to them.
In the police comedy Mademoiselle et son gang/Mademoiselle and her gang (Jean Boyer, 1957), Renaud played the daughter of a police inspector, who under pseudonym writes crime novels, but then gets into trouble with real gangsters. In 1959, she played in another comedy, L’Increvable/The Indestructible (Jean Boyer, 1959) with Darry Cowl as a barman in love with his boss’s wife (Renaud), deciding to draw up a life insurance in favour of his beloved, an act which becomes known.
French postcard by Editions O.P., Paris, no. 52. Photo: Teddy Piaz.
After a gap of almost two decades, Renaud returned to the film set with La Folle journée ou le mariage de Figaro (Roger Coggio, 1988). She now played roles of mothers and grandmothers. She alternated comedies such as Ripoux contre ripoux/My New Partner II (Claudi Zidi, 1990) with Philippe Noiret, and Ma femme me quitte/My Woman Is Leaving Me (Didier Kaminka, 1995) with drama such as J’ai sommeil/I Can't Sleep (1994) by Claire Denis, based on the true story of a killer of old ladies who was active in the North of France from the late 1980s. Renaud played a supporting part as hotel owner who teaches self-defense to old ladies.
For her supporting part in the comedy Belle-maman/Step mother (Gabriel Aghion, 1999), starring Vincent Lindon and Catherine Deneuve, Renaud received a César Nomination in 2000. In Coline Serreau’s comedy-drama Chaos (2001), she is the mother-in-law of the protagonist Helen (Catherine Frot), earning her a second César nomination.
After Serreau’s film 18 ans après/18 Years Later (Coline Serreau, 2003), the sequel to Trois hommes et un couffin/Three Men and a Cradle (Coline Serreau, 1985), Renaud appeared in the Claude Lelouch comedy Le Courage d'aimer/The Courage to Love (2005), followed by the comedy La Maison du bonheur/The House of Happiness(Dany Boon, 2006), based on the same play as the classic Mr. Blandings builds his Dream House (H.C. Potter, 1948).
Renaud’s nationally and internationally best known film is Dany Boon’s Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis/Welcome to the Sticks (2008). This comedy, directed and co-scripted by Boon, with Kad Merad and himself in the lead, focuses on a cheating post office director (Merad) forced to move to a little city in the North of France. This region is badly considered in the rest of France, for its heavy dialect, its limited cuisine, its bad weather, and alcoholism. The post man discovers it is not that bad in the end.
The film broke records in France, started tourism towards the North, and inspired an Italian remake. Renaud played the mother of the local hero, Antoine (Boon). Boon himself exploited his success and the North discovery with his comedy La Ch'tite Famille/The Stick Family (2018), with Renaud again playing his mother. It was her third part in a film by Dany Boon.
Line Renaud also appeared in the cruise ship comedy La Croisière/The Cruise (Pascale Pouzadoux, 2011) as an old lady who smuggles her dog aboard, and she regularly acts in TV series and films. A new tragicomedy with Renaud, Let's Dance (Ladislas Chollat, 2019) is set to appear this year.
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 52. Photo: Sam Lévin.
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 196. Photo: Sam Lévin.
Sources: Wikipedia (French, English and German) and IMDb.
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 196. Photo: Sam Lévin.
French promotion card by Publicis / Pathé Marconi. Photo: Sam Lévin.
The Commander
Line Renaud was born Jacqueline Enté in Pont-de-Nieppe in the north of France in 1928. Her father was a truck driver, her mother a steno typist. Because of her father's activity as a trumpeter in the local brass band, she got into contact with music. At age seven, she won an amateur contest. During the Second World War, her father was mobilised and prisoner of war for five years, so she was raised by her her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother.
Her girlfriends called her "the commander" because she knew what she wanted and you always had to listen to her. Having failed at the age of 14 in the Primary School Certificate, she was spotted at the entrance examination at the Lille Conservatory: the very evening of her audition, the director of Radio-Lille suggested that she joined his orchestra.
The 16-years-old made herself known under the name of Jacqueline Ray, singing the songs of well-known composer Louis 'Loulou' Gasté. She moved to Paris in 1945 and landed her first engagement at the Folies-Belleville.
Through Josette Daydé, she met her songwriter 'Loulou' Gasté, twenty years older than her. He became her mentor and made her take a new stage name. She chose Renaud, borrowing from her grandmother Marguerite Renard her surname, and changing one letter. In 1947, she recorded 'Ma cabane au Canada', which received the Grand Prix du Disque in 1949. In 1950, she married Loulou Gasté, who remained her husband until his death in 1995.
Line Renaud continued her success with titles such as 'Étoile des neiges' (1950), 'Ma p'tite folie' (1952), 'Mademoiselle d'Armentières' (1952), and 'Le Chien dans la vitrine' (1952) whose barking was done by the famous French voice-over Roger Carel, as he explained during his visit to the Tribunal des flagrants délires in 1980.
French postcard. Photo: Sam Lévin. Editions du Globe, Paris, No. 146.
Johnny Hallyday's godmother
In 1954 Line Renaud sang at the Moulin Rouge, collecting several prizes that year, causing Edith Piaf's jealousy. At the Moulin Rouge, she met Bob Hope. She left for the United States, and subsequently appeared in five episodes of The Bob Hope Show in the US. During this trip, she also sang at the theatres of New York and Los Angeles, and at the Ed Sullivan Show. In a duet with Dean Martin, she sang 'Relaxez-vous' as ‘Relax ay voo’. At the end of 1955, she was the first French singer to sing a Rock and Roll song: 'Tweedle Dee' by Lavern Baker.
In 1959, she became a revue leader at the Casino de Paris, then she was engaged in Dunes, a casino in Las Vegas between 1963 and 1965. She also sang in London. Frequenting Nate Jacobson, the founder of Caesar’s Palace at Las Vegas, and her lover for 18 years, she was also involved in the creation of this hotel-casino in terms of decoration and the auditorium.
In April 1960, she became Johnny Hallyday's godmother for his first television appearance on Aimée Mortimer's show L'école des vedettes. In the 1970s, she presented on television the 'Line Directe' show. In the same decade, she was the producer of Tony Bennett's shows for the Kings Castle in Las Vegas.
In the 1980s, she produced the television show Telle est Line on Antenne 2, and began a theatre career. In the same decade, she sang 'Le Soir' with Dalida, of whom she was a very close friend.
In the 1990s, while the casino hotel Paris Las Vegas was planned, she contacted the mayor of Paris Jean Tibéri, in order to authorise the construction of a replica of the Eiffel Tower on the building. She became artistic director of the establishment and invited Catherine Deneuve and Charles Aznavour for the inauguration in 1999, while singing on stage with Michel Legrand.
French postcard by Editions du Globe, no. 350. Photo: Studio Harcourt.
A Street in Las Vegas
In 1985, Line Renaud created l'Association des Artistes Contre le Sida and organised televised art events which enabled her to raise funds for helping AIDS scientific research in France. She is the vice-president of the association Sidaction. In 2009, she condemned the statements of Pope Benedict XVI, who claimed condoms promoted behaviour which causes AIDS.
Renaud was president of the jury of the Miss France 2009 election. Ten years later, December 2018, she renewed the experience by presiding the jury of Miss France 2019.
After thirty years of absence, she returned to singing and recorded a new album, entitled 'Rue Washington' (2010), in reference to the recording studio Labomatic located in this street. Directed by Dominique Blanc-Francard, the album includes two duets, the first with Johnny Hallyday, 'Un monde merveilleux', a cover of 'What a Wonderful World', the second with Mylène Farmer, 'C'est pas l'heure', with words by Farmer and music by Laurent Boutonnat. Famous names such as Julien Clerc, Michel Delpech, and Salvatore Adamo, collaborated on this project.
The song 'Torrents d'amour' from the album ranked 24th in the bestseller list at its release in November 2010. On 24 and 25 May 2011, Line Renaud performed for the first time in her career, at the Olympia in Paris.
In October 2017, she opened a street bearing her name in Las Vegas. The path, located near the mythical Strip, the gigantic artery that runs through the city, provides access to a secondary entrance to the casino Caesars Palace. The Line Renaud Road is not far from the streets bearing the names of his friends Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin.
French postcard by Editions du Globe, no. 218. Photo: Teddy Piaz, Paris.
French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 362. Photo: Ch. Vandamme, Paris.
The daughter of the local bar owner
In 1946, Line Renaud started acting in films and she still does so. Her singing skills were often at the heart of her roles. Her first part was that of the singer singing 'Tant que tu m'aimeras' in La Foire aux chimères/Devil and the Angel (Pierre Chenal, 1946), starring Madeleine Sologne and Erich von Stroheim.
She had a small part in Une belle garce/A beautiful bitch (Jacques Daroy, 1948) featuring Ginette Leclerc, and played herself in the documentary Au fil des ondes/Over the waves (Pierre Gautherin, 1951).
Renaud became the star of Ils sont dans les vignes/They are in the vineyards... (Robert Vernay, 1952), a musical comedy about a salesman of a non-alcoholic drink, who tries to set up market right in the Burgundy wine area. Renaud is the daughter of the local bar owner and the love interest of the salesman.
In addition to playing herself in more films of the 1950s, she again played the daughter of the local bar owner in La Madelon (Jean Boyer, 1955), in which she has to fight the too brash soldiers during the First World War, but she is a tough girl, so she manages. They go wild for her song 'Madelon', which becomes a kind of hymn to them.
In the police comedy Mademoiselle et son gang/Mademoiselle and her gang (Jean Boyer, 1957), Renaud played the daughter of a police inspector, who under pseudonym writes crime novels, but then gets into trouble with real gangsters. In 1959, she played in another comedy, L’Increvable/The Indestructible (Jean Boyer, 1959) with Darry Cowl as a barman in love with his boss’s wife (Renaud), deciding to draw up a life insurance in favour of his beloved, an act which becomes known.
French postcard by Editions O.P., Paris, no. 52. Photo: Teddy Piaz.
Mothers and grandmothers
After a gap of almost two decades, Renaud returned to the film set with La Folle journée ou le mariage de Figaro (Roger Coggio, 1988). She now played roles of mothers and grandmothers. She alternated comedies such as Ripoux contre ripoux/My New Partner II (Claudi Zidi, 1990) with Philippe Noiret, and Ma femme me quitte/My Woman Is Leaving Me (Didier Kaminka, 1995) with drama such as J’ai sommeil/I Can't Sleep (1994) by Claire Denis, based on the true story of a killer of old ladies who was active in the North of France from the late 1980s. Renaud played a supporting part as hotel owner who teaches self-defense to old ladies.
For her supporting part in the comedy Belle-maman/Step mother (Gabriel Aghion, 1999), starring Vincent Lindon and Catherine Deneuve, Renaud received a César Nomination in 2000. In Coline Serreau’s comedy-drama Chaos (2001), she is the mother-in-law of the protagonist Helen (Catherine Frot), earning her a second César nomination.
After Serreau’s film 18 ans après/18 Years Later (Coline Serreau, 2003), the sequel to Trois hommes et un couffin/Three Men and a Cradle (Coline Serreau, 1985), Renaud appeared in the Claude Lelouch comedy Le Courage d'aimer/The Courage to Love (2005), followed by the comedy La Maison du bonheur/The House of Happiness(Dany Boon, 2006), based on the same play as the classic Mr. Blandings builds his Dream House (H.C. Potter, 1948).
Renaud’s nationally and internationally best known film is Dany Boon’s Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis/Welcome to the Sticks (2008). This comedy, directed and co-scripted by Boon, with Kad Merad and himself in the lead, focuses on a cheating post office director (Merad) forced to move to a little city in the North of France. This region is badly considered in the rest of France, for its heavy dialect, its limited cuisine, its bad weather, and alcoholism. The post man discovers it is not that bad in the end.
The film broke records in France, started tourism towards the North, and inspired an Italian remake. Renaud played the mother of the local hero, Antoine (Boon). Boon himself exploited his success and the North discovery with his comedy La Ch'tite Famille/The Stick Family (2018), with Renaud again playing his mother. It was her third part in a film by Dany Boon.
Line Renaud also appeared in the cruise ship comedy La Croisière/The Cruise (Pascale Pouzadoux, 2011) as an old lady who smuggles her dog aboard, and she regularly acts in TV series and films. A new tragicomedy with Renaud, Let's Dance (Ladislas Chollat, 2019) is set to appear this year.
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 52. Photo: Sam Lévin.
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 196. Photo: Sam Lévin.
Sources: Wikipedia (French, English and German) and IMDb.
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