Rise and fall of one of the French recently deceased (8)
I believe the answer is:
undulate
'rise and fall' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'one of the french recently deceased' is the wordplay.
'one' becomes 'un' (I've seen this in other clues).
'of the french' becomes 'du'.
'recently deceased' becomes 'late' (I've seen this before).
'un'+'du'+'late'='UNDULATE'
'of' is the link.
(Other definitions for undulate that I've seen before include "Rise and fall like waves" , "make waves" , "ripple" , "Go gently up and down" , "Move like waves" .)