Charles Aznavour singer, songwriter and actor died 1st October 2018.
One of France’s best-loved entertainers and its most potent show-business export since Maurice Chevalier.
Often compared to Sinatra, Aznavour started his career as a songwriter for Piaf, but it was she who took him under her wing, encouraging him to sing his own material. Like her, his fame ultimately reached well outside France, including being awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2017.
His versatile tenor, lush lyrics and kinetic stage presence endeared himself to fans the world over, but nowhere more so than in France. He sang to sold-out concert halls into his 90s and said he wrote every single day.
"I throw most of it away. You write first, judge later," he said in a 2015 interview before the release of the album Encores.
Aznavour sold more than 180 million records and wrote upward of 1,000 songs, for himself, Piaf and other popular French singers. The love ballad “She” topped British charts for four weeks in 1974 and was covered by Elvis Costello for the film Notting Hill.
"I'm a songwriter who sometimes performs his own songs," was his preferred self-description.
He is survived by his third wife, Ulla (nee Thorsel), whom he married in 1967, and their children Katia, Mischa and Nicolas; and by Seda and Charles, the children of his first marriage, to Micheline Rugel. A son, Patrick, from his second marriage, to Evelyne Plessis, predeceased him.
