Skip to main content
Serge Gainsbourg

Serge Gainsbourg

Actor · 1928 – 1991 · Paris, France

Serge Gainsbourg (born Lucien Ginsburg; 2 April 1928 – 2 March 1991) was a French singer-songwriter, actor, composer, and director. Regarded as one of the most important figures in French pop, he was renowned for often provocative releases which caused uproar in France, dividing public opinion. His artistic output ranged from his early work in jazz, chanson, and yé-yé to later efforts in rock, zouk, funk, reggae, and electronica. Gainsbourg's varied musical style and individuality make him difficult to categorise, although his legacy has been firmly established and he is often regarded as one of the world's most influential popular musicians. Gainsbourg wrote over 550 songs, which have been covered more than 1,000 times by diverse artists. His lyrical works incorporated wordplay, with humorous, bizarre, provocative, sexual, satirical or subversive overtones. Since his death from a second heart attack in 1991, Gainsbourg's music has reached legendary stature in France. While controversial in his lifetime, he has become one of France's best-loved public figures. He has also gained a cult following across the world with chart success in the United Kingdom and Belgium with "Je t'aime... moi non plus" and "Bonnie and Clyde", respectively. Serge Gainsbourg was born in Paris on 2 April 1928, in the maternity ward of the Hôtel-Dieu de Paris on the Île de la Cité. He was the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, Joseph and Olga Ginsburg. Born Brucha Goda Besman (nicknamed Olia/Olga) in Feodosiya in 1894, Serge's mother was a mezzo-soprano singer. Serge's father Joseph was born in Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire of Ukrainian Jewish heritage in 1896. Originally interested in painting, he entered the Petrograd Conservatory and then the Moscow Conservatory to study music, becoming a classically trained pianist. He came to Crimea, where he met and married Olga in 1918. The couple fled Odessa for Paris via Georgia and then Istanbul in the years following the Russian Revolution. The couple arrived in Marseille in 1921, settling in Paris near Olga's brother, who worked for the Louis Dreyfus Bank. Joseph became a piano performer at bars, casinos, and cabarets, while Olga sang at the Conservatoire Rachmaninoff. Serge and his twin sister Liliane had an elder brother Marcel, born in 1922, who died at sixteen months of pneumonia. They also had an older sister Jacqueline, born in 1926. The family lived in the working-class districts of Paris, first at 35 Rue de la Chine in the 20th arrondissement, and then at 11 Rue Chaptal in the 9th arrondissement. They obtained French nationality in 1932. Joseph taught Serge and Liliane to play the piano. At age 12, Serge enrolled at the École Normale de Musique de Paris. Gainsbourg's childhood was profoundly affected by the occupation of France by Germany during World War II. The identifying yellow star that Jews were required to wear haunted Gainsbourg; in later years he was able to transmute this memory into creative inspiration. Early in the summer of 1941, the family temporarily sought refuge in the commune of Courgenard in the Sarthe department, at a place called "La Bassetière," with Baptiste and Irma Dumur. ... Source: Article "Serge Gainsbourg" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.

Series24

  • TV5.7

    Sacrée soirée

    1987 · 5 votes

  • TV6.8

    Champs-Elysées

    1982 · 9 votes

  • TV3.6

    Vivement dimanche

    1998 · 9 votes

  • TV7.3

    Die Drehscheibe

    1964 · 3 votes

  • TV6.0
  • TV8.5

    Apostrophes

    1975 · 4 votes

  • TV9.5

    Spécial cinéma

    1974 · 2 votes

  • TV9.0

    Midi Première

    1975 · 2 votes

  • TV7.5

    Numéro un

    1975 · 2 votes

  • TV8.0

    Le Grand Échiquier

    1972 · 3 votes

  • TV6.0

    Midi trente

    1972 · 1 votes

  • TV2.0

    La semaine des 4 Julie

    2020 · 1 votes

  • TV5.0

    Ciné regards

    1978 · 1 votes

  • TV6.0

    Samedi soir

    1971 · 1 votes

  • TV5.1

    Film '72

    1971 · 8 votes

  • TV8.0

    Discorama

    1959 · 1 votes

  • TV3.3
  • TV6.1

    Nulle part ailleurs

    1987 · 8 votes

  • TV6.2

    30 millions d'amis

    1976 · 3 votes

  • TV8.0

    À bout portant

    1968 · 1 votes

  • TV6.0

    Bitte umblättern

    Please Turn the Page

    1977 · 1 votes

  • TV6.3

    Samedi Sébastien

    2021 · 3 votes

  • TV6.5
  • TV8.0

    Dim Dam Dom

    1965 · 2 votes

Movies23

  • Movie6.7

    Le pacha

    Pasha

    1968 · 117 votes

  • Movie7.7

    Les Plages d'Agnès

    The Beaches of Agnès

    2008 · 147 votes

  • Movie8.3

    Bardot

    2025 · 8 votes

  • Movie6.8

    Jane B. par Agnès V.

    Jane B. by Agnès V.

    1988 · 68 votes

  • Movie7.0

    Reporters

    1981 · 10 votes

  • Movie5.6

    Strip-Tease

    1963 · 14 votes

  • Movie7.2
  • Movie4.4

    Cannabis

    1970 · 14 votes

  • Movie6.6

    Whitney: Can I Be Me

    2017 · 166 votes

  • Movie6.5

    L'Âge d'or de la pub

    2023 · 6 votes

  • Movie5.5

    La morte negli occhi del gatto

    Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eye

    1973 · 65 votes

  • Movie7.0

    Public Speaking

    2011 · 64 votes

  • Movie9.0

    Teuf-teuf

    1963 · 1 votes

  • Movie3.9

    Sérieux comme le plaisir

    Serious as Pleasure

    1975 · 9 votes

  • Movie6.1

    Voulez-vous danser avec moi ?

    Come Dance with Me!

    1959 · 26 votes

  • Movie5.7

    Erotissimo

    1969 · 19 votes

  • Movie8.0

    Françoise Hardy - La discrète

    The Discreet Françoise Hardy

    2016 · 5 votes

  • Movie6.2

    Le Grand Pardon

    The Big Pardon

    1982 · 86 votes

  • Movie5.7

    Slogan

    1969 · 25 votes

  • Movie4.0

    Le Roman d'un voleur de chevaux

    Romance of a Horsethief

    1971 · 5 votes

  • Movie4.1

    Gainsbourg, l'homme qui aimait les femmes

    Gainsbourg and His Girls

    2010 · 4 votes

  • Movie7.6
  • Movie4.9

    Les Chemins de Katmandou

    Katmandu

    1969 · 8 votes