Jean-Louis Barrault

Known for ActingBorn 1910-09-08Died 1994-01-22Le Vésinet, Yvelines, Île-de-France, France

Jean-Louis Barrault (8 September 1910, Le Vésinet, Yvelines – 22 January 1994) was a French actor, director and mime artist, training that served him well when he portrayed the 19th-century mime Jean-Gaspard Deburau (Baptiste Debureau) in Marcel Carné's 1945 film Les Enfants du Paradis (Children of Paradise). Jean-Louis Barrault studied with Charles Dullin in whose troupe he acted from 1933 to 1935. At 25 years of age, he met and studied with the mime Étienne Decroux. From 1940 to 1946 he was a member of the Comédie-Française, where he directed productions of Paul Claudel's Le Soulier de satin and Jean Racine's Phèdre, two plays that made his reputation. Over his career, he acted in nearly 50 movies including Les beaux jours, Jenny, L'Or dans la Montagne and Sous les Yeux d'occident. In 1940, he married the actress Madeleine Renaud. They founded a number of theatres together and toured extensively, including in South America. He was the uncle of actress Marie-Christine Barrault and sometime sponsor of Peter Brook. He died from a heart attack in Paris at the age of 83. Jean-Louis Barrault is buried with his wife Madeleine Renaud in the Passy Cemetery in Paris. Jean-Louis Barrault, Reflections on the Theatre: "In fact it is the simplest things that are the most tricky to do well. To read, for example. To be able to read exactly what is written without omitting anything that is written and at the same time without adding anything of one's own. To be able to capture the exact context of the words one is reading. To be able to read!" Barrault from Melinda Camber Porter's Through Parisian Eyes: Reflections on Contemporary French Arts and Culture: "When I wake up in the morning I want to feel hungry for life. Desire is what drives me. When I go to sleep, I feel I have experienced a small death, so that I can wake up in the morning renewed and reborn." Description above from the Wikipedia article Jean-Louis Barrault, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.Read more

Movies & web series

La Rose et le réséda

À nous deux, madame la vie

Encyclopédie audiovisuelle du cinéma

Midi Première

Musée Grévin

Angel of the Night

Social Police

La lumière du lac

Le Grand Échiquier

À bout portant

Discorama

Children of Paradise

Vagabonds imaginaires

Youth in Revolt

Numéro un

The Longest Day

The Dialogue of the Carmelites

La Ronde

That Night of Varennes

Venom and Eternity

Mirages

Happy Days

Experiment in Evil

Bizarre, Bizarre

Royal Affairs in Versailles

Street of Shadows

Orage

Le Fantôme de Laurent Terzieff

The Life and Loves of Beethoven

Chappaqua

30 millions d'amis

J'Accuse

La Symphonie fantastique

The Pearls of the Crown

Les Rendez-vous du dimanche

Samedi soir

Blind Desire

Under Western Eyes

Blood on His Sword

Jenny

Mlle. Desiree

The Big Scare

The Puritan

Montmartre on the Seine

The Southern Trail

Parade in 7 Nights

Hélène

Man to Men