Coluche (Michel Colucci)

Michel Gérard Joseph Colucci was born in Montrouge on the southern edge of Paris to an Italian immigrant father and a French mother. Growing up in working-class poverty, Coluche adopted his stage name and transformed French comedy in the 1970s with his trademark yellow boots, striped dungarees, and razor-sharp, irreverent vulgarity aimed at social pretension, racism, and political corruption. In 1981, his satirical candidacy for President of the Republic garnered 16% in opinion polls before he withdrew under political pressure.

Winning the César Award for Best Actor in 1984 for his poignant dramatic role in Tchao Pantin, Coluche turned his fame toward the surging unemployment of the mid-1980s. On 26 September 1985, speaking on radio station Europe 1, Coluche delivered an impromptu challenge: 'I have a little idea... if there are people who would be interested in sponsoring a free soup kitchen, we'd start by distributing food in Paris and across the country.'

Within months, Coluche mobilized pop musicians, athletes, and politicians to create Les Restaurants du Cœur. That first winter of 1985–1986, the charity distributed 8.5 million meals. Coluche successfully lobbied the European Parliament in Strasbourg to open surplus food stocks to charities and proposed the 'Loi Coluche' tax deduction on individual charitable donations. Tragically killed in a motorcycle crash in June 1986 at age forty-one, Coluche's Restos du Cœur continues to distribute over 140 million meals annually in France.