Philippe Labro, an internationally beloved French journalist, author, filmmaker, and songwriter, has died.
Videos by Suggest
Labro, who lived in Paris, passed away on June 2 at the Pitié Salpêtrière hospital due to brain lymphoma, which was diagnosed in April, according to his longtime assistant, Anne Boy, per The New York Times. He was 88.
During his prolific career, he worked for RTL, Paris Match, TF1, and Antenne 2. In 1986, he won the Prix Interallié for his autobiography L’Étudiant étranger.
French President Emmanuel Macron took to social media to pay tribute to Labro.
“He wrote our popular, French, and universal history,” Macron wrote on X, “from Algeria to America, and from Herman Melville to Johnny Hallyday, the French rock ’n’ roll superstar.”
According to the Paris Match, Philippe Labro was born on August 27, 1936, in Montauban (Tarn-et-Garonne) to Jean-François and Henriette Labro, later honored as Righteous Among the Nations for hiding Jewish children during World War II. Drawn to writing from a young age, Labro became editor-in-chief of the Journal des jeunes at just 15 after winning a competition sponsored by Le Figaro. At 18, he received a scholarship to study in the United States at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia.
Philippe Labro embraced American culture and style before returning to France, where he launched a successful career as a journalist and novelist. By 24, he had already published his first novel in 1960.
As France-Soir’s correspondent in the United States, he reported on the assassination of John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963, and went on to write several books about it.
Philippe Labro’s Prolific Work in Film, Books and Music
He hosted television programs, including the Antenne 2 news, served as editor-in-chief at RTL, worked as a columnist for the Journal du Dimanche and Paris Match, and launched the Direct 8 channel in 2005.
A close collaborator of the godfather of the French New Wave, Jean-Pierre Melville, Labro directed seven films, including Sans mobile apparent with Jean-Louis Trintignant, L’Héritier and L’Alpagueur with Jean-Paul Belmondo, and Rive droite, rive gauche with Gérard Depardieu and Nathalie Baye.
He won the Interallié Prize for L’Étudiant étranger and created a largely autobiographical body of work, with what many consider his masterpiece, Le Petit Garçon, in 1990. His books explore his youth, life’s ups and downs, a near-death experience in La Traversée (1996), and his battle with depression in Fall Seven Times, Get Up Eight (2003).
He was also a lyricist who wrote for Eddy Mitchell, Jane Birkin, and especially Johnny Hallyday. Labro wrote the lyrics for an entire album by Hallyday, Flagrant Crime, which includes the hit song “Oh! Ma jolie Sarah.”
He is survived by his wife, their two children, Clarisse Davis-Labro and Jean Labro, as well as a daughter from his first marriage to Geneviève Gourou, Valérie Labro. He also leaves behind Alexandra de Csabay-Labro, his wife’s daughter, whom he adopted.