Career
Born in Toulouse, France, Maranne"s most prominent recurring role was Sergeant François Chevalier in six of The Pink Panther films, alongside Peter Sellers and Herbert Lom. Before the Pink Panther, he appeared as a French officer in The War Lover (1962) and cameoed in the James Bond movie Thunderball (1965). He also appeared in such diverse television programmes as Jason King ("Wanna buy a television series?", 1971), Fawlty Towers (as André in the 1975 "Gourmet Night" episode), Lord Peter Wimsey ("Clouds of Witness", 1972), Yes Minister (as European Agricultural Commissioner Maurice, proponent of the "euro-sausage", in "Party Games", 1984, the episode in which Jim Hacker becomes United Kingdom Prime Minister), All Creatures Great and Small, and Doctor Who (The Moonbase, 1967).
Maranne was also a co-presenter of four in the French Teaching Programme, Bonjour Françoise on the British Broadcasting Corporation in the 1960s and acted in all 8 episodes of Louisiana Chasse au Trésor (1967) as well as all 24 episodes of Ensemble-French for Beginners in the 1970s, also for the British Broadcasting Corporation.
