In 1969, with Romain Bouteille he was present at the start of the Café de la Gare, meeting place of a group of young comedic actors practically all of whom were to become famous: Patrick Dewaere, Henri Guybet, Miou-Miou, Martin Lamotte, etc.

It was at this point that he began to dress in his well-known outfit of white tennis shoes, blue striped overalls, a bright yellow T-shirt and round glasses.

In a 30 October 1980 press conference at the theatre of his one-man show, Coluche announced his candidacy for the French presidential election.

He was not taken seriously until the Sunday newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche published a poll on 14 December 1980 showing Coluche supported by 16% of potential voters.

[4] His "campaign" was supported and organized by Parisian publisher Charlie Hebdo, with slogans such as "Before me, France was divided in two; now it will be folded in four" (more idiomatically "être plié en quatre" could be translated as "doubled over laughing"), and "Coluche - the only candidate who has no reason to lie".

However, he withdrew after pressure from serious politicians - including François Mitterrand who saw him as a menace for his own candidacy - and the murder of his manager René Gorlin.

A little more than a year later, at 16:35 on 19 June 1986, he died after crashing his Honda 1100 VFC into a truck on the "route de Cannes", a road in the commune of Opio, Alpes-Maritimes in southeastern France.

This event provoked national grief and inspired the album Putain de camion ("fucking truck") by his close friend Renaud.

[9] In March 2011, a bronze statue of Coluche, dressed in his trademark striped dungarees, was unveiled in his hometown of Montrouge (suburb of Paris).

A law known as the Loi Coluche was passed in 1988, allowing large tax deductions (up to 75% in some cases) for individuals or businesses that donate to specified aid agencies.