Gérard Oury, 1919 - 2006.

Director Gérard Oury, a cultural icon of France whose decades-old comedies remain hits today, has died, local officials at his Riviera home said Thursday. He was 87.

[...]

Besides [The Adventures of] Rabbi Jacob, he is best known for the 1966 movie La Grande Vadrouille (Don't Look Now - We're Being Shot At).

[...]

He directed France's greats, from comedians Louis de Funès and Bourvil to Jean-Paul Belmondo and Yves Montand. President Jacques Chirac, in a statement, called Oury's movies "an integral part of our culture and our imagination." The president of the Cannes Film Festival, Gilles Jacob, praised Oury for his "sense of comedy, sense of rhythm... timing, all with an absence of pretension."

The AP.

Posted by dwhudson at July 20, 2006 5:14 AM