Johnny Hallyday
Jean-Philippe Léo Smet (15 June 1943 – 5 December 2017), better known by his stage name Johnny Hallyday, was a French rock and roll and pop singer and actor, credited with having brought rock and roll to France.
During a career spanning 57 years, Hallyday released 79 albums and sold more than 110 million records worldwide, mainly in the French-speaking world, making him one of the best-selling artists in the world. He had five diamond albums, 40 gold albums, 22 platinum albums and earned ten
Usually working with the best French artists and musicians of his time, Hallyday collaborated with Charles Aznavour, Michel Berger and Jean-Jacques Goldman. Hugely popular in France, he was referred to as simply "Johnny" and seen as a "national monument" and a part of the French cultural legacy. He became a symbol of the Trente Glorieuses, France's prosperous postwar era, after he emerged in 1960, and was a familiar figure to four generations. More than 2,500 magazine covers and 190 books were dedicated to him during his lifetime, making him one of the people most widely covered by the media in France. His death from cancer in 2017 was followed by a "people's tribute", during which a million people attended the funeral procession in Paris and 15 million others watched the ceremony on TV. Hallyday remained relatively unknown outside the French-speaking world, where he was dubbed "the biggest rock star you've never heard of" and introduced as the French version of Elvis Presley.
Jean-Philippe Smet was born in the 9th arrondissement of Paris on 15 June 1943 to a Belgian father, Léon Smet, and a French mother, Huguette Eugénie Pierrette Clerc. Léon Smet, who worked as a nightclub performer, left his wife and son a few months later. Clerc started a modeling career, which left her with little time to care for her son. Hallyday grew up with his aunt, Hélène Mar, and took his stage name from a cousin-in-law from Oklahoma (Lemoine Ketcham) who performed as Lee Halliday. The latter called Smet "Johnny" and became a father figure, introducing him to American music. ...
Source: Article "Johnny Hallyday" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.
Born
Jun 15, 1943
Paris, France
Died
Dec 05, 2017
Known For
Acting
Movies
127 acting
5 crew
Popularity
0.7
Known For
The Pink Panther 2
2009
as Milliken
Crimson Rivers II: Angels of the Apocalypse
2004
as L'ermite
Diabolique
1955
as Student (uncredited)
Vengeance
2009
as Francis Costello
Once Upon My Mother
2025
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Animal
1977
as La vedette masculine
Crime Spree
2003
as Marcel Burot
Titeuf
2011
as Le chanteur du train (voice)
Man on the Train
2002
as Milan
Rock'n Roll
2017
as Johnny Hallyday
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