andre maranne

Born in Toulouse (France) on May 14, 1926, André Gaston Maillol –his real name– made his acting debut as one of the protagonists of the BBC series Bobby in France . In cinema he made small appearances as a waiter, in La vividora and No se marsa en Monte Carlo . Since then he specialized in civil servants, maitre d’s and policemen who accumulated French stereotypes, in British productions.

After numerous roles without much significance, on film and television, André Maranne  played Sergeant François Chevalier for the first time in The New Case of Inspector Clouseau . His role was reduced almost exclusively to putting on an astonished face, when his superior, Inspector Dreyfuss, despaired of the continuous meddling of the protagonist, Inspector Clouseau. But Blake Edwards—and viewers—laughed, so he became a recurring actor in the series, reprising his role in The Return of the Pink Panther , The Pink Panther Strikes Again , Revenge of the Pink Panther , On the Trail of the Pink Panther and The Curse of the Pink Panther, shot as a tribute to the death of Peter Sellers . 

Edwards also recruited him for Darling Lili , where he appears alongside Julie Andrews , the filmmaker’s wife. In England, André Maranne is also remembered as Roger Benoit, a physicist at a moon base, in the Doctor Who series . He also for a skit on the BBC sitcom Fawlty Towers , entitled Gourmet Night . He played a restaurant owner who is asked for his signature dish by a friend, played by John Cleese , but the new Greek chef gets drunk, with disastrous results. 

Married to Moira Mitchell in 1956,  André Maranne  became a British national in 1967. 

In addition, he was a presenter on Bonjour Françoise , the BBC’s language program for children . He retired after a chapter of the Bergerac series , in 1991.