French actor Jean Lefebvre was working as an opera singer in the late 1940s. He was seen performing and was invited to join a comedy group made up of actors, musicians, and comedians, called Les Branquignols and began performing with the group in taverns. At the same time, he was beginning to act in small roles in films. By the time the 1960s rolled around, he had already performed in around 30 different film roles, and he was becoming a big star. In 1963, he played a comedic gangster character, Paul Volfoni, in "Les Tontons flingueurs." That film, about a retired gangster who is visited by his childhood friend, was not very successful at first, but has gone on to be recognized as a classic. Lefebvre was well known for his comic sense of self-mockery, which could be seen, for example, in 1967's "An Idiot in Paris," where he had top billing, playing the idiot, Goubi. Some other memorable roles include the crook Arsene Baudu in 1965's "Quand passent les faisans," and Leonard Michalon, an indebted bookmaker, in "Ne nous fachons pas" in 1966. The actor was, in fact, a major gambler and by the 1980s, with his star fading and his gambling debts piling up, he began to take roles simply to make money, regardless of their quality.