Philippe Labro

{{Short description|French author, journalist and film director (1936–2025)}}

{{infobox person

| name = Philippe Labro

| image = Festival automobile international 2012 - Photocall - Phlippe Labro - 002.jpg

| caption = Labro in 2012

| birth_date = {{birth date|1936|08|27|df=y}}

| birth_place = Montauban, France

| death_date = {{death date and age|2025|06|04|1936|8|27|df=y}}

| death_place = Paris, France

| nationality = French

| education = Washington and Lee University

| employer = C8

| occupation = {{cslist|Journalist|novelist|film director}}

| signature = Philippe Labro signature.jpg

}}

Philippe Labro (27 August 1936 – 4 June 2025) was a French author, journalist, and film director. He worked for RTL, Paris Match, TF1, and Antenne 2. He received the Prix Interallié for his autobiography L'Étudiant étranger in 1986.{{Cite web |title=Lauréats du prix Interallié |url=https://www.loumina.fr/prix-litteraire-prix-interallie |access-date=October 21, 2023 |website=www.loumina.fr |language=fr}}

Career

At the age of eighteen, he left France to study at Washington and Lee University in Virginia. He then travelled across the United States. On his return to Europe, he became a reporter. From 1960 to 1962, during the Algerian war, Labro was a member of the military. He then returned to his journalistic activities. While covering the assassination of John F. Kennedy for French newspaper France-Soir, he met Jack Ruby in Dallas days before he shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald; he was thus subsequently officially interviewed by the Warren Commission.

He wrote and directed many films and was a close friend of Jean-Pierre Melville, as he recalls in the 2008 documentary Code Name Melville. From 1985 to 2000, he was director of programmes at RTL becoming the vice president of the station in 1992.

In April 2010, he became Commander of the Légion d'honneur.[http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2010/04/05/01016-20100405ARTFIG00337-legion-d-honneur-la-promotion-de-paques-.php Le Figaro]

Death

Labro died on 4 June 2025, in Paris at the age of 88, from cancer.{{Cite web |title=L'écrivain et journaliste Philippe Labro est mort |url=https://www.parismatch.com/culture/medias/lecrivain-et-journaliste-philippe-labro-est-mort-252291 |access-date=June 4, 2025 |website=www.parismatch.com |language=fr}}