Gérard de Villiers
Born: December 8, 1929
Died: October 31, 2013
in Paris, France
Died: October 31, 2013
in Paris, France
Gérard de Villiers (8 December 1929 – 31 October 2013) was a French writer, journalist and publisher whose SAS series of spy novels have been major bestsellers.
Born in Paris in 1929, Villiers was the son of playwright Jacques Adam de Villiers (known by his stage name of Jacques Deval) and his wife. His father was both prolific and a spendthrift. The younger Villiers attended high school and graduated from Sciences Po university in Paris. He also obtained a degree from the École supérieure de journalisme de Paris.
He began writing in the 1950s for France Soir, a French daily, and became a foreign correspondent. He found "the blend of risk and cold calculation" in intelligence work to be "seductive". In 1964 Villiers began to write and publish spy novels. He continued to cultivate his connections among the military and intelligence services, who enjoyed helping Villiers portray them and their acts in fiction. He is the author of the spy novel series SAS, publishing his first volume in 1965. It tells the adventures of the Austrian prince and CIA agent Malko Linge, referred to in the first title as SAS. This is a play on initials and acronyms: Firstly, Son Altesse sérénissime (SAS) is the French version of "His Serene Highness" (HSH). Secondly, the British Special Air Service (SAS) is the principal special forces unit of the British Army. Thirdly, the SAS series has always included product (airlines and spirits) placement from varying sponsors over the years. One of the first sponsors was Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), which flew the hero around in the beginning, although he later set his heart (and the author's wallet) on Air France.
Villiers wrote 200 SAS novels. De Villiers' books are well known in French-speaking countries for their in-depth insider knowledge of such subjects as espionage, geopolitics, and terrorist threats, as well as their hard-core sex scenes. According to the New York Times, "His works have been translated and are especially popular in Germany, Russia, Turkey, and Japan. The SAS series has sold a reported 120 million copies worldwide, which would make it one of the top-selling series in history, on a par with Ian Fleming's James Bond books. SAS may be the longest-running fiction series ever written by a single author". In addition to France, they were translated and popular in Germany, Russia, Turkey, and Japan; and, since some have been published in English since 2014, in the United States and other English-speaking countries. They are said to be studied by various intelligence services and enjoyed by successive French heads of state.
Villiers published four titles per year between 1966 and 2005, increasing his production to five per year between 2006 and his death in 2013. Usually the locale of the story is featured in the title (as in, Les amazones de Pyongyang' [The Amazons of Pyongyang] or Putsch à Ouagadougou [Coup in Ouagadougou]). Villiers was well known for writing novels that incorporated contemporary events, such as wars or terrorist threats. He frequently visited theaters of operation, doing research and interviews to ground his stories with accurate facts. He typically researched each book by 15 days on location and then wrote it in another six weeks. ...
Source: Article "Gérard de Villiers" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Born in Paris in 1929, Villiers was the son of playwright Jacques Adam de Villiers (known by his stage name of Jacques Deval) and his wife. His father was both prolific and a spendthrift. The younger Villiers attended high school and graduated from Sciences Po university in Paris. He also obtained a degree from the École supérieure de journalisme de Paris.
He began writing in the 1950s for France Soir, a French daily, and became a foreign correspondent. He found "the blend of risk and cold calculation" in intelligence work to be "seductive". In 1964 Villiers began to write and publish spy novels. He continued to cultivate his connections among the military and intelligence services, who enjoyed helping Villiers portray them and their acts in fiction. He is the author of the spy novel series SAS, publishing his first volume in 1965. It tells the adventures of the Austrian prince and CIA agent Malko Linge, referred to in the first title as SAS. This is a play on initials and acronyms: Firstly, Son Altesse sérénissime (SAS) is the French version of "His Serene Highness" (HSH). Secondly, the British Special Air Service (SAS) is the principal special forces unit of the British Army. Thirdly, the SAS series has always included product (airlines and spirits) placement from varying sponsors over the years. One of the first sponsors was Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), which flew the hero around in the beginning, although he later set his heart (and the author's wallet) on Air France.
Villiers wrote 200 SAS novels. De Villiers' books are well known in French-speaking countries for their in-depth insider knowledge of such subjects as espionage, geopolitics, and terrorist threats, as well as their hard-core sex scenes. According to the New York Times, "His works have been translated and are especially popular in Germany, Russia, Turkey, and Japan. The SAS series has sold a reported 120 million copies worldwide, which would make it one of the top-selling series in history, on a par with Ian Fleming's James Bond books. SAS may be the longest-running fiction series ever written by a single author". In addition to France, they were translated and popular in Germany, Russia, Turkey, and Japan; and, since some have been published in English since 2014, in the United States and other English-speaking countries. They are said to be studied by various intelligence services and enjoyed by successive French heads of state.
Villiers published four titles per year between 1966 and 2005, increasing his production to five per year between 2006 and his death in 2013. Usually the locale of the story is featured in the title (as in, Les amazones de Pyongyang' [The Amazons of Pyongyang] or Putsch à Ouagadougou [Coup in Ouagadougou]). Villiers was well known for writing novels that incorporated contemporary events, such as wars or terrorist threats. He frequently visited theaters of operation, doing research and interviews to ground his stories with accurate facts. He typically researched each book by 15 days on location and then wrote it in another six weeks. ...
Source: Article "Gérard de Villiers" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Movies for Gérard de Villiers...
Title: Sheila, toutes ces vies-là
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: December 24, 2022
Type: Movie
The portrait of a woman who remembers. Sheila tells the story of Sheila, without concessions or evasions. Her childhood, her parents, her beginnings, the rumors, her love affairs, her marriage, her son, her successes, her farewells, her return, her mourning. The journey of an extraordinary popular icon who never stopped fighting. The courage of an artist who never gives up. "Sheila, toutes ces vies-là" is also a journey through time. 60 years of pop music, punctuated by numerous archives, personal films, timeless hits and illustrations by Marc-Antoine Coulon. But also 60 years of fashion, through a legendary wardrobe (her TV show outfits) that Sheila invites us to rediscover.
Title: Zone interdite
Character: Self
Released: March 7, 1993
Type: TV
The zone interdite refers to two distinct territories established in German-occupied France during the Second World War after the signature of the Second Armistice at Compiègne.
Title: Apostrophes
Character: Self
Released: January 10, 1975
Type: TV
Apostrophes was a live, weekly, literary, prime-time, talk show on French television created and hosted by Bernard Pivot. It ran for fifteen years (724 episodes) from January 10, 1975, to June 22, 1990, and was one of the most watched shows on French television (around 6 million regular viewers). It was broadcast on Friday nights on the channel France 2 (which was called "Antenne 2" from 1975 to 1992). The hourlong show was devoted to books, authors and literature. The format varied between one-on-one interviews with a single author and open discussions between four or five authors.
Title: The Vampire of Dusseldorf
Character: A suspect (uncredited)
Released: April 7, 1965
Type: Movie
A true story of Peter Kurten, a serial killer who committed nine murders and many other offenses in Dusseldorf during the Great Depression era.
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