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  • BIRTH 08/09/1910
  • DEATH 22/01/1994
  • Country France
  • MOVIES 24

Jean-Louis Barrault

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.​

Jean-Louis Barrault

Movies (24)

The Longest Day
The Longest Day
Father Louis Roulland
Le Miracle des loups
Le Miracle des loups
Louis XI
Les Enfants du Paradis
Les Enfants du Paradis
Baptiste Debureau
Si Versailles m'était conté
Si Versailles m'était conté
Fénelon
La Grande Frousse
La Grande Frousse
Drôle de drame
Drôle de drame
William Kramps, le tueur de bouchers
La Nuit de Varennes
La Nuit de Varennes
Nicolas Edmé Restif de la Bretonne
Chappaqua
Chappaqua
Dr. Benoit
Traité de bave et d'éternité
Traité de bave et d'éternité
Self
Jenny
Jenny
le Dromadaire
Le Testament du docteur Cordelier
Le Testament du docteur Cordelier
Dr. Cordelier / Opale
Orage
Orage
L'Africain
Avec André Gide
Avec André Gide
Self
J'accuse
J'accuse
Montmartre sur Seine
Montmartre sur Seine
Michel Courtin
Le Destin fabuleux de Désirée Clary
Le Destin fabuleux de Désirée Clary
Napoléon Bonaparte
D'homme à hommes
D'homme à hommes
Henri Dunant
Le Fantôme de Laurent Terzieff
Le Fantôme de Laurent Terzieff
Self (archive footage)
Sous les yeux d'occident
Sous les yeux d'occident
Haldin
Mademoiselle Docteur
Mademoiselle Docteur
le client fou
La Piste du Sud
La Piste du Sud
Olcott
Un grand amour de Beethoven
Un grand amour de Beethoven
Karl van Beethoven
La Ronde
La Ronde
The Poet
Le Dialogue des Carmélites
Le Dialogue des Carmélites