Jean-Yves Lafesse, stage name of Jean-Yves Lambert (13 March 1957 – 22 July 2021), was a French actor and humorist. He was known for making

prank calls A prank call (also known as a crank call) is a telephone call intended by the caller as a practical joke played on the person answering. It is often a type of nuisance call. It can be illegal under certain circumstances. Recordings of prank pho ...

, as well as hidden camera pranks.

Biography

Lafesse was born in Pontivy. He left Brittany in 1974. He travelled for four years through Djibouti, Italy, and England, where he joined the punk counterculture in 1976. During his youth, he was a footballer for Stade pontivyen, and he played as a defender. Lafesse studied film at the from 1978 to 1981. In 1981, he became a radio show host for , , and . In 1984, he joined Radio Nova, for which he began making prank calls. In 1985, Lafesse joined Europe 1 and Canal+, as well as France 2,

TF1 TF1 (; standing for ''Télévision Française 1'') is a French commercial television network owned by TF1 Group, controlled by the Bouygues conglomerate. TF1's average market share of 24% makes it the most popular domestic network. TF1 is par ...

, France 3, M6, Paris Première, and Télévision Suisse Romande for the radio show ''Lafestival''. For , he hosted a show called ''Radio carotte'', in which he pranked passersby through placing a carrot in their hands. He became known for using his pinky finger as an imitation microphone. Lafesse published two books: ''Les Grandes Impostures téléphoniques'' in 1992 and ''Petit Précis de l'imposture'' in 1994. In 2000, he launched a website called Uniqueaumonde.com, which allowed users to see his pranks on the internet. He played the character Commissioner San-Antonio in two audiobooks, adapted from novels by

Frédéric Dard Frédéric Dard (Frédéric Charles Antoine Dard; 29 June 1921, in Bourgoin-Jallieu, Isère, France – 6 June 2000, in Bonnefontaine, Fribourg, Switzerland) was a French crime writer. He wrote more than three hundred novels, plays and screenplays ...

(''La Rate au court-bouillon'' and ''Votez Bérurier''). On 28 March 2014, Lafesse appeared on a stage for the first time in a production of ''Lafesse en réhet'', a show he had written. It was shown at the Palais des congrès de Pontivy in front of 700 people. That same year, he played Pierre Dac in ', a telefilm broadcast by France 3. After a period of silence, he moved to Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 2019 and organized sketches there, as well as in Poissy. Later that year, he left the Paris area and moved back to Brittany. He was recruited by the radio station France Bleu Breizh Izel for the 2019–2020 season, broadcasting humorous tales he wrote with his brother. Jean-Yves Lafesse died of

ALS Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most com ...

in Vannes on 22 July 2021 at the age of 64.

Filmography

Cinema

*' (1983) *'' Baby Blood'' (1990) *'' La Classe américaine'' (1993) *' (1998) *' (1999) *'' Heartbreaker'' (2010) *' (2019)

Television

*''J'arrive !'' (1982) *' (2014) *' (2019) *'' Murders in...'' (2020)

Publications

*''Les Grandes Impostures téléphoniques'' (1992) *''Petit Précis de l'imposture'' (1994) *''Mes impostures'' (2011) *''Punk Mamy'' (2019)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lafesse, Jean-Yves 1957 births 2021 deaths People from Pontivy Actors from Brittany French humorists Neurological disease deaths in France Deaths from motor neuron disease French male comedians