France’s Sinatra
PARIS — Charles Aznavour, the French crooner and actor whose performing career spanned eight decades and who seduced fans around the world with his versatile tenor, lush lyrics and kinetic stage presence, has died. He was 94.
One of France’s most recognized faces, Aznavour sang to sold-out concert halls until the end, resorting to a prompter only after having written upwards of 1,000 songs by his own estimate, including “La Boheme.”
His death was confirmed by the singer’s producer, Gerard Drouout Productions, and the French Culture Ministry. “Thank you, M. Aznavour,” government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux tweeted.
Often compared to Frank Sinatra, Mr. Aznavour started his career as a songwriter for Edith Piaf. The French chanteuse took him under her wing. Like her, his fame ultimately reached well outside France: Mr. Aznavour was named entertainer of the century in an online poll by CNN and Time magazine in 1999.
In a career that spanned 80 years, Mr. Aznavour sold more than 180 million records, according to his official biography.
He broke an arm last May but was set to start a new tour in November in France, starting in Paris. BFMTV, the French news station, said he had just returned from a tour of Japan.
Mr. Aznavour was one of the Armenian diaspora’s most recognized voices and vocal defenders, but he sang in numerous languages, particularly English. His reputation in the United States spanned generations.
In a 2013 interview, Mr. Aznavour suggested he would sing until the age of 100.
Throughout his career, Mr. Aznavour wrote for Piaf and other popular French singers. The love ballad “She” topped British charts for four weeks in 1974 and was covered by Elvis Costello for the film Notting Hill.
Liza Minnelli, who met Mr. Aznavour when she was a teenager and he was in his 40s, described following him to Paris. “He really taught me everything I know about singing — how each song is a different movie,” she said in a 2013 interview.
He resisted description as a crooner, despite decades of torch songs that are now firmly fixed in the French lexicon. “I’m a songwriter who sometimes performs his own songs,” was his preferred self-description.
Shanoun Varenagh Aznavourian was born in Paris on May 22, 1924, to Armenian parents who fled to Paris in the 1920s and opened a restaurant. His singer father — whose own father was a chef to Russian Czar Nicholas II — and actress mother exposed him to the performing arts early on.
Mr. Aznavour, who cut the Armenian suffix from his stage name, decided to switch to music but still acted in films. His movie credits include Francois Truffaut’s 1960 “Tirez sur le Pianiste” (Shoot the Pianist), Volker Schloendorff’s 1979 “Die Blechtrommel” (The Tin Drum), and Atom Egoyan’s 2002 “Ararat.”