Henri Salvador

Henri Salvador, France’s most cherished comedian for nearly half a century, died Wednesday at age 90 at his home in Paris.

A native of French Guyana on the northeast coast of South America, Salvador was also an accomplished jazz guitarist and singer. He played with such greats as Ray Ventura, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and, most notably, France’s most famous jazzman, Django Reinhardt.

Henri Gabriel Salvador was born in French Guyana, on July 18, 1917. His parents came from the predominantly black island of Guadaloupe.

“I have done everything in the field of entertainment,” Salvador said upon the release of his last album, Reverence, in 2006. “And just to think, my whole career was improvised.”

Henri Salvador turned to comedy and the movies after a four-year sojourn in Brazil beginning in 1941 where he became a major star. It was Salvador who first introduced the new version of the Samba that became known internationally as the Bossa Nova. Even Antonio Carlos Jobim has acknowledged his “borrowing” of the new music style from Salvador.  His humorous songs and zany movies brought more tear-filled laughter to an endearing French public than any other comedian of his era, including French favorites Charlie Chaplin, Jerry Lewis and the home grown Bourvil.

In the early1950s Henri Salvador made a series of movies featuring African American expatriates and now-forgotten stars of a bygone era. These include “Nous Irions a Paris (We are going to Paris),” featuring the amazing Peters Sisters.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy praised Salvador for impact on so many lives. “His refrains and inimitable velvety voice will continue to comfort us for a long, long time,” Sarkozy said.