Discover Johnny Hallyday’s first film role

57 years of musical career, more than 50 studio albums, 40 gold records, 10 Victoires de la Musique…

Passed away in December 2017 at the age of 74, Johnny Hallyday was and will undoubtedly remain one of the greatest artists in the history of French song.

Also known by legendary titles Requiem for a Fool, desire, light a fire, my mouth and Something from TennesseeHe also had several film roles, such as Sergio Corbucci’s The Specialist, The Adventures of Claude Lelouch, Patrice Leconte’s Man on the Train, and The Revenge of Johnny To.

First role at the age of 12

But before achieving blessing and fame – whether on the stage or the big screen – Johnny Hallyday also had opening and small roles. At the age of 12, when he dreamed of breaking into the world of music, the man still known as Jean-Philippe Smet took his first steps in cinema in Henri-Georges Clouse’s legendary film noir, Les Diaboliques.

This chilling thriller, in which the wife of a boarding house director and her mistress team up to kill him, played by Vera Clouzot, Simone Signore and Paul Meurice, takes place mainly in the institution run by the characters. Among the students of this institution, as we see in several episodes of the feature film, provided you know where to look for him, a very young Johnny Hallyday was hiding.

“It’s a good memory.”

We can see him behind Simone Signoretti at 1 hour 38 minutes in the class photo scene.

“There was a casting, my aunt took me, I was 12 years old and I was chosen, it’s a good memory… It was my first experience with the seventh art!”He said on the subject in a special issue of Les Inrockuptibles in 2009.

Among the students of Les Diaboliques, along with the future Johnny Hallyday, was also Georges Pujol (already famous for playing as a little boy in Jeux Interdits).

Two years after those first shoots, the young aspiring artist will begin to perform his first musical scenes, thus starting the phenomenal career that will be his in the world of music and rock and roll.

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