Johnny Hallyday

Hallyday in March 2014

Jean-Philippe Léo Smet (15 June 1943 – 6 December 2017), better known by his stage name Johnny Hallyday, was a French rock and roll singer and actor. He has completed 181 tours, had 18 platinum albums and sold more than 110 million records worldwide in his lifetime. Some of his best known hits include "Retiens la nuit", "Souvenirs, souvenirs", "Le pénitencier", "Que je t'aime", "Requiem pour un fou", "Marie", "Allumer le feu", "Laura", "Je te promets", "Sang pour sang". He was sometimes called the "French Elvis Presley" though he wouldn't stick to only sing as Presley did.

Johnny Hallyday appeared in the movies The Specialist (1969), Détective (1985) and Crime Spree (2003). He was not very well known outside the French-speaking world.

Halliday was born in Paris. His father was from Belgium and his mother was French. He had five marriages and had four children.^[1]

Hallyday had surgery for colorectal cancer in 2009. He revealed he had lung cancer in 2017. He died on 6 December 2017 in Marnes-la-Coquette, Paris, at the age of 74.^[1]^[2]

Johnny Hallyday Media

Hallyday performing in 1963
Hallyday performing in 1965
Hallyday with his touring band in 1978
Hallyday's handprint in Cannes Chemin des étoiles (Walk of Fame)
Hallyday with his first wife, Sylvie Vartan, in 1965.
Hallyday with his third wife, Adeline Blondieau, at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival.
Hallyday with his fourth and last wife, Læticia Boudou, at the Mamers premiere of Salaud, on t'aime in 2014.
Hallyday performing in Villeneuve-d'Ascq in 2003
Hallyday at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival
Hallyday with Audrey Dana and Julien Cottereau in Le Paradis sur terre at the Édouard VII theater in 2011