Vale: Charles Aznavour

French crooner Charles Aznavour, who acted in more than 90 films and TV dramas, has died, aged 94.

Touted as “France’s Frank Sinatra”, he died at home in the south of France.

Aznavour sold more than 180 million records including songs such as “She,” “Yesterday When I Was Young” and “For Mama.”

Many Aznavour songs have been covered by other singers, such as Roy Clark with “Yesterday, When I Was Young,” Ray Charles with “For Mama,” Dylan with “The Times We’ve Known,” Minnelli with “What Makes a Man a Man,” and Elvis Costello with “She,” for the soundtrack of Notting Hill. Aznavour sang duets with many singers, including Sting on “Love Is New Everyday,” Celine Dion on “Toi et Moi” and Sinatra on “You Make Me Feel So Young.”

As well as being a singer and songwriter, Aznavour acting achievements included Francois Truffaut’s seminal Shoot the Piano Player, Volker Schlondorff’s foreign-language Oscar-winning film The Tin Drum and Atom Egoyan’s Ararat.”Even the legendary French poet-artist-filmmaker Jean Cocteau was a fan, casting him in his 1959 film Testament of Orpheus.

TV credits included Baldi, Angelina, Le chinois, Le paria and Passage du bac and Passage du bac.

Aznavour continued to work and perform to the very end, including a concert in Sydney only 2 weeks ago.

In May Aznavour told The Telegraph of his ambition to perform on his 100th birthday, saying: “I will do a concert on that date – and after that we’ll see. But why would I ever stop? In order to die at home sitting in my armchair? Non merci.”

Source: Variety