Jean Bruce
Encyclopedia
Jean Bruce born Jean Brochet on 22 March 1921 was a prolific French popular writer who died in 26 March 1963 in a car accident. He also wrote under the pseudonyms of Jean Alexandre, Jean Alexandre Brochet, Jean-Martin Rouan, and Joyce Lindsay.

He is particularly known for the adventures of secret agent Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath, aka OSS 117
OSS 117
OSS 117 is the codename for Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath, a fictional secret agent initially from the pen of the prolific Jean Bruce. Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath is described as being an American Colonel from Louisiana of French descent...

, of which many novels have been adapted for the screen in the 1960s. Bruce's first OSS 117 novel appeared in 1949. He wrote prolifically with 91 OSS 117 novels and many others before his death in a Jaguar
Jaguar (car)
Jaguar Cars Ltd, known simply as Jaguar , is a British luxury car manufacturer, headquartered in Whitley, Coventry, England. It is part of the Jaguar Land Rover business, a subsidiary of the Indian company Tata Motors....

 sports car crash. Though the first OSS 117 N'est Pas Mort (OSS 117 Is Not Dead) film was made in 1957 with Ivan Desny
Ivan Desny
Ivan Nikolai Desnitskij was a Russian actor born in China who worked for most of his life in Germany.-Career:Desny was a film/movie actor. He acted in more than 150 films, most of them German...

 in the lead, a popular series of several OSS 117 films started in 1963 after the French release of Dr. No (film)
Dr. No (film)
Dr. No is a 1962 spy film, starring Sean Connery; it is the first James Bond film. Based on the 1958 Ian Fleming novel of the same name, it was adapted by Richard Maibaum, Johanna Harwood, and Berkely Mather and was directed by Terence Young. The film was produced by Harry Saltzman and Albert R...

with Kerwin Matthews in two, director Andre Hunebelle
André Hunebelle
André Hunebelle was a French director born September 1, 1896 in Meudon , died 27 November 1985 in Nice .Hunebelle was a former publisher of a French newspaper called La Fleché...

's discovery Frederick Stafford
Frederick Stafford
Frederick Stafford was an Austrian-born actor.The Czech actor Frederick Stafford , who spoke fluent Czech, German, English, French and Italian, was a leading man in European spy-movies....

 in two more, John Gavin
John Gavin
John Gavin is an American film actor and a former United States Ambassador to Mexico. Gavin is half Mexican and fluent in Spanish....

 in one (replacing Stafford who was starring in Alfred Hitchcock's Topaz (1969 film)
Topaz (1969 film)
Topaz is a 1969 suspense film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It is a Cold War and spy story, adapted from the book of the same name by Leon Uris and closely based on the 1962 Sapphire Affair involving French SDECE spy Philippe Thyraud de Vosjoli who "ha[d] played a considerable part in helping...

, then with Luc Merenda and Alan Scott in two in the 1970s that were French made for TV films. In 2006 an action comedy satire OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies
OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies
OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies is a French film directed by Michel Hazanavicius. It is a parody of the spy film genre. The film follows the exploits of a French secret agent, OSS 117, in Cairo in 1955.-Plot:...

with Jean Dujardin
Jean Dujardin
-Life and career:Dujardin was born in Rueil-Malmaison. Dujardin first became famous on the French talent show Graines de star in 1996 as part of the comedy group Nous C Nous, formed by members of the Carré blanc theater. From 1999 to 2003 he starred in the French version of the comedy television...

 as OSS 117 became a surprise international hit.

After his death, his wife Josette Bruce (who died in 1996) continued to write 143 new titles for the OSS 117 character beginning in 1966 until her death. After her death their son and daughter François and Martine Bruce wrote 24 books up until 1992.

Films of some of Bruce's other books such as Le vicomte règle ses comptes (The Viscount) with Kerwin Matthews and Cinq Gars Pour Singapour (Five Ashore In Singapore) with Sean Flynn
Sean Flynn
Sean Leslie Flynn was an American actor and freelance photojournalist best known for his coverage of the Vietnam War. He started a news service in Saigon with John Steinbeck IV, son of the American author.Flynn was the only child of the marriage of Errol Flynn and Lili Damita...

 were made.

Jean-Paul Belmondo
Jean-Paul Belmondo
Jean-Paul Belmondo is a French actor initially associated with the New Wave of the 1960s.-Career:Born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, west of Paris, Belmondo did not perform well in school, but developed a passion for boxing and football."Did you box professionally very long?" "Not very long...

 played both a Jean Bruce type writer and his OSS 117 type creation in Philippe de Broca
Philippe de Broca
Philippe de Broca was a French film director.Born Philippe Claude Alex de Broca de Ferrussac in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, the son of a photographer of noble origins. de Broca was a cinephile from an early age, and he studied at the l'École technique de photographie et de cinématographie...

's Le Magnifique
Le Magnifique
Le Magnifique is a French movie released in 1973, starring Jacqueline Bisset and Jean-Paul Belmondo.Le Magnifique is a slapstick spoof of B-series espionage movies and novels.-Synopsis:...

.

External links

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