René-Louis Lafforgue

René-Louis Lafforgue was a French songwriter and singer of Spanish origin and libertarian inspiration.  He was also an actor in cinema, theater and television .

René-Louis Lafforgue was born on March 13, 1928 into a family of libertarian activists from the Spanish Basque Country. He suffered the war in Spain , then exile in France, where his parents took refuge in Cachan . He took part in the Resistance with his brother Sylvain, who died there.

After having practiced several trades (apprentice butcher, carpenter, machinist), he became an actor, then a singer-songwriter. After the first parts of the shows of Georges Brassens , he moved to the Olympia .

In 1948 , Charles Dullin hired him as an actor. In 1949 , he toured Europe with the mime Marcel Marceau .

He interprets the play Drame à Toulon - Henri Martin by Claude Martin and Henri Delmas which recounts the life and trial of Henri Martin , a sailor opposed to the war in Indochina and sentenced to five years' imprisonment for participation in a "demoralization enterprise of the army and the nation. Charles Denner, Paul Préboist, José Valverde and Antoine Vitez are some of the actors in troupe. Representations are prohibited by several prefects and mayors. But the censorship is often thwarted and the play is played more than three hundred times.

In 1955 , he won the Grand Prix de la Chanson française de Deauville (André Claveau category), which marked the beginning of his notoriety.

René-Louis Lafforgue is the author of the songs Julie la Rousse (1956) and Le Poseur de rails (1957). He won the Record Prize in 1959

In 1962 , he created the cabaret L'École buissonnière at No. 10  rue de l'Arbalète in Paris , where Guy Bedos, Paul Préboist, Pierre Louki, Boby Lapointe, Maurice Fanon, Christine Sèvres, Léo Campion and even Beatrice Arnac. The cabaret was then a meeting place for libertarians and pacifists for whom it hosted many parties. After his death, the cabaret was run by his wife, Claudie. He was also the founder of Éditions du Tournesol.

René-Louis Lafforgue was killed in a car on national road 118, between Albi and Castres, on June 3, 1967  while traveling for the filming of a soap opera, L'Éventail de Sevilla . He rests in Cachan cemetery.