Jean Bruce

Who was Jean Bruce?

Jean Bruce born Jean Brochet on 22 March 1921 was a prolific French popular writer who died on 26 March 1963 in a car accident. He also wrote under the pseudonyms of Jean Alexandre, Jean Alexandre Brochet, Jean-Martin Rouan, and Joyce Lindsay.

He is particularly known for the adventures of secret agent Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath, aka OSS 117, of which many novels were adapted for the screen in the 1960s. Bruce's first OSS 117 novel appeared in 1949. He wrote prolifically with 91 OSS 117 novels and many others before his death in a Jaguar sports car crash. Though the first OSS 117 n'est pas mort film with Ivan Desny in the lead was already made in 1957, a popular series of several OSS 117 films started no earlier than in 1963, following the French release of Dr. No with Kerwin Mathews in two, director André Hunebelle's discovery Frederick Stafford in two more, John Gavin in one