Fans gather at Johnny Hallyday’s Paris home after French rock star dies at 74
Police have installed barricades outside the home of French rock star Johnny Hallyday as fans gather to mourn his death.
Police vans arrived before dawn on Wednesday at the property in the Paris suburb of Marnes-la-Coquette, near Versailles.
Fans came soon afterwards, wrapped up against the December cold, to pay tribute and share memories.
Tributes poured in after news broke overnight that Hallyday, often dubbed the French Elvis, had died at the age of 74.
The office of French President Emmanuel Macron announced the death in a statement early on Wednesday, saying "he brought a part of America into our national pantheon".
It said the president had spoken with Hallyday’s family but did not provide details about where he died or the circumstances.
Hallyday had been suffering from lung cancer for some time and had recently suffered repeated health scares.
His glitzy stage aura was clearly fashioned around stars like Elvis Presley and his musical inspiration came from the likes of Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly.
Yet his stardom largely ended at the French-speaking world.
Mr Macron said "we all have something of Johnny Hallyday in us".
The antithesis of a French hero right down to his Elvis-style glitter, his gravelly voice and his name with an un-French ring, Hallyday was nevertheless an institution in France.
He was the top rock ’n’ roll star through more than five decades and eight presidents.
He was born in Paris on June 15 1943, during the dark days of the Second World War, with a less glamorous name - Jean-Philippe Smet.
His parents had separated by the end of the year. The young Jean-Philippe followed his father’s sisters to London, where he met American singer Lee Ketchman.
Hallyday gave his first professional concert in 1960, under the name Johnny, and put out his first album a year later.
By 1962, he had met the woman who would be his wife for years, and remained his friend to the end, singing star Sylvie Vartan.
That year, he also made an album in Nashville, Tennessee, and rubbed shoulders with American singing greats.
With his square-jawed good looks and piercing blue eyes, Hallyday was often sought out for the cinema, playing in French director Jean-Luc Godard’s Detective and working with other illustrious directors including Costa-Gavras.
More recently, he appeared in Johnnie To’s Vengeance and had talked about giving film a bigger role in his life.
However, it was the rocker’s sentimental life, and his marriage to Laeticia that gave him a mellow edge. He spoke lovingly of daughters Jade and Joy, who were adopted from Vietnam.
"I’m not a star. I’m just a simple man," he said in a 2006 interview on France 3.
Hallyday is also survived by two other children - Dave, a singer fathered with Vartan, and Laura Smet, his daughter with noted French actress Nathalie Baye.
AP
