The legendary Jean-Marie Le Pen has passed away at the ripe old age of 96. The French founder of the National Front party lived an incredible life and cut a swath through post-World War II Europe that should be remembered for years to come. He was like an early European prototype of Donald Trump. Le Pen very nearly became the president of France in 2002 but eventually lost to Jacques Chirac. One of the most hilarious stories of the notorious Le Pen’s life involves one of the last known duels that was fought in Western civilization back in 1958. This is a story you won’t find on Le Pen’s Wikipedia page.

It all started when the Marquis Jorge Cuevas announced that his company had been forbidden to perform the opera Black and White at the Champs-Elysées Theater in Paris. The marquis defiantly declared that the show would happen anyway and expressed his outrage at the dance choreographer for the show, 53-year-old Serge Lifar. Monsieur Lifar was outraged because the opera was supposed to be the exclusive property of the Paris Opera and not those namby-pamby frauds over at the Champs-Elysées.

The dancing master Lifar flounced up to the marquis and tossed a scented handkerchief at his feet, challenging the Marquis Cuevas to a fight to the death!

The marquis was inwardly terrified at this, so he decided to ask a total badass to serve as his second: The eyepatch-wearing French Foreign Legion veteran Jean Marie Le Pen, who was currently an Officer of the French National Assembly. (Sort of like one of our Representatives in Congress.)

Le Pen had served as a paratrooper in French Indochina (later Vietnam), Suez, and the Algerian War for France, losing an eyeball in the process. Le Pen famously carried a dagger and a loaded revolver everywhere, because Algerian terrorists and other malcontents were constantly trying to murder him.

The job of the “seconds” in a duel is to negotiate the terms of the fight, to make sure it’s fair and to decide which weapons will be used. Their duty is also to try to calm things down so that the fight doesn’t happen. However, Jean-Marie Le Pen had a notorious dislike for gay people so he wasn’t having any of that! Even though he was duty-bound to serve as the marquis’ second, he wanted the two old queens to FIGHT!

Oh, if we haven’t mentioned it yet—both combatants were super-duper gay. The marquis was also elderly, had rheumatism, was nearly blind, and had recently broken his leg.

Both duelists were publicity whores in Paris, so the seconds refused to tell them where they had scheduled the fight. The two flamboyant fighters would have blabbed to the press. Plus, dueling was illegal and the seconds didn’t want to get into trouble with the law.

Jean-Marie Le Pen did everything in his power to make sure this hilarious duel took place, even though he was supposed to try to negotiate peace. On the day of the big fight, no less than 30 reporters followed the marquis and the dance choreographer to a villa outside Paris. Time Magazine wrote a story about the fight called “Gay Blades,” because the 20th century was awesome.

The fight lasted six minutes before the nearly blind marquis managed to poke the also terrified dance choreographer in the arm, drawing blood.

“I knew it would end in an embrace!” exclaimed the choreographer, hurling himself into the arms of his opponent for a big hug.

You might be wondering what the point of this entire story is. We’re not sure, either. Jean-Marie Le Pen was one of those larger-than-life figures who had amazing adventures, the likes of which we just don’t seem to have in the 21st century. Donald Trump is just about the only notorious public figure in 2025 who can hold a candle to people like Le Pen, Teddy Roosevelt, and other great men of history.

Godspeed, Monsieur Le Pen. What a life!

Thankfully, the duel between the marquis and the dance choreographer still lives on YouTube. Jean-Marie Le Pen is the guy wearing the eyepatch: