Léon Zitrone (25 November 1914 – 25 November 1995) was a Russian-born French journalist and television presenter.

Biography

Zitrone was born in

Petrograd Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, Russia. He arrived in France with his family fleeing communism at the age of six. He graduated from the ESJ Paris. He began by training in scientific studies but his mastership of Russian, French, English and German gave him entrance in 1948 to the radio foreign broadcasting services of Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF). In 1959, he joined the television activity of RTF. From 1961, he became news presenter, function he occupied for nearly 20 years, first until 1975, on the first French television channel (now

TF1 TF1 (; standing for ''Télévision Française 1'') is a French commercial television network owned by TF1 Group, controlled by the Bouygues conglomerate. TF1's average market share of 24% makes it the most popular domestic network. TF1 is par ...

), then also on Antenne 2, the other public service channel.

Jean-Pierre Elkabbach Jean-Pierre Elkabbach (born 29 September 1937) is a French journalist. Biography Elkabbach was born to an Algerian Jewish family in Oran in 1937, then the prefecture of the ''département d'Oran'' in French Algeria. He began his journalisti ...

called him back in 1979. He then took charge of the news program during the week-end (his contract was established until 1 February 1981). He would come back for those news programs also during the Easter and Pentecost week-ends. But Léon Zitrone's celebrity is due to the programs he presented or co-presented. He was host of the televised program '' Intervilles'' (French counterpart of Britain's '' It's a Knockout'') with Guy Lux. He commented 6 times on the Tour de France, and he is remembered for his prodigious memory for names of riders. He presented the

Olympics The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

8 times, commented the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

on 4 occasions and presented 16 Bastille Day military parades. Above all, he was the key-commenter for big events, such as weddings, burials or investitures of world's key figures, some thirty of them during the course of his career. In 1978, following French singer Marie Myriam's victory the previous year, the Eurovision song contest took place in Paris. Léon Zitrone co-presented with

Denise Fabre Denise Fabre (born 5 September 1942) is a French former television personality, best known for her role as an in-vision continuity announcer. She is now municipal advisor to the presiding mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi. Biography Fabre, born i ...

and made the presentation in English.Histoire de l'ESJ Paris
In 1984, Zitrone took a leading role in the movie '' American Dreamer''.

Death

He died from a cerebral hemorrhage on his 81st birthday, 25 November 1995, at the

Val-de-Grâce The (' or ') was a military hospital located at in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. It was closed as a hospital in 2016. History The church of the was built by order of Queen Anne of Austria, wife of Louis XIII. After the birth of h ...

hospital in Paris.

Biography

Death

Filmography

References

See also