Jacques Pills(1906-1970)

An agreeable light singer and crooner, Jacques Pills started a solo career while Tabet became a screenwriter for the cinema. Like many other singing stars, Pills made movies (a few alongside Tabet) and just like many other singing stars, the films he made were no masterpieces, mainly musical films designed to entertain undemanding fans, nearly always in the role of a singer. Comedies like Toi, c'est moi (1936) or Prends la route (1936) have cheered up enthusiastic crowds but are totally forgotten today. The only exception in this string of light comedies is an unexpected thriller, Seul dans la nuit (1945), in which a singer (Pills)'s hit "Seul dans la nuit" is heard whenever a woman is murdered by a lady-killer. Worse, this beloved singer might (but is he actually?) be the serial killer himself. A welcome dark spot in too sunny an output. Anyway, Jacques Pills's main claim to fame is not his film career. It may well be ... the two illustrious singers he married (and divorced), Lucienne Boyer and Édith Piaf. In La Môme (2007), his character is interpreted by Laurent Olmedo.