Originally from the Spanish Basque country, singer-songwriter René-Louis Lafforgue was born in San Sebastian on March 13, 1928. His family arrived in France during the Spanish Civil War and settled in the Paris region, in Cachan, before moving to Pontoise, where the teenager studied and worked at various odd jobs. Mobilized during the Second World War, he took part in the Resistance and lost his brother Sylvain, who was taken prisoner and shot. Attracted to the theater after the Liberation, René-Louis Lafforgue joined Charles Dullin's troupe in 1948 and toured Europe with mime Marcel Marceau. After plays by Shakespeare and Boris Vian, in 1951 he starred in Claude Martin's Drame à Toulon - Henri Martin alongside Charles Denner and Antoine Vitez, and wrote his first songs on the road for the 300-strong tour. In 1953, he continued with Jacques Fabbri's troupe, singing as a second act in the Parisian cabarets La Villa d'Este and l'Échelle de Jacob, which enabled him to record his first album for the Ducretet-Thomson label, Le Troubadour de Paris Dans Ses Œuvres (1954), including the revelation "Le Pavé de ma rue". After appearing in the cinema in 1951 in the role of the painter in Julien Duvivier's Sous le ciel de Paris, he pursued a singing career alongside other acting roles, culminating in the success of "Julie la rousse" (1956), performed two years later in Claude Boissol's film with another acclaimed tune, "À la belle étoile". Julie la rousse", the star song of her first album for Pathé, was awarded the Prix André Claveau and the Grand Prix du disque de l'Académie Charles-Cros at the Grand Concours de la chanson de Deauville. Other titles found favor with the public, who came to applaud her as opening act for Georges Brassens, before her first appearance at the Olympia in Paris in 1957. Following the albums Chiens et Chats (1958) and René-Louis Lafforgue Chante les Auteurs Qu'il Aime... (1959), in 1962 the singer created his own Parisian cabaret, l'École Buissonnière, featuring Guy Bedos, Boby Lapointe, Pierre Louki, Maurice Fanon, Christine Sèvres and Béatrice Arnac. At the crossroads of chanson réaliste, rive gauche, engagement and music-hall nostalgia, René-Louis Lafforgue performed the repertoire of his guests on his last album, Chante les Auteurs de l'École Buissonnière (1962). In 1966, he founded his own label, Les Éditions du Tournesol, under which he released his last songs. While filming the TV series L'Éventail de Séville, René-Louis Lafforgue was killed in a car accident on the road from Albi to Castres, on June 3, 1967, at the age of 39.
