
Jean-Louis Barrault
Biography
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."
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Acting (45 movies)

Le Fantôme de Laurent Terzieff
2020

Experiment in Evil
1960

To Be Hamlet
1985

Children of Paradise
1945

L'Or dans la montagne
1939

The Longest Day
1962

Chappaqua
1966

The Night of Varennes
1982

Venom and Eternity
1952

Royal Affairs in Versailles
1954

The Pearls of the Crown
1937

À nous deux, madame la vie
1937

Social Police
1937

I Accuse
1938

La Symphonie fantastique
1942

Parade in 7 Nights
1941

Jenny
1936

Angel of the Night
1944

Vagabonds imaginaires
1950

Bizarre, Bizarre
1937

Blood on His Sword
1961

Street of Shadows
1937

With André Gide
1952

The Big Scare
1964

Mlle. Desiree
1941

Under Western Eyes
1936

La Ronde
1950

Orage
1938

The Life and Loves of Beethoven
1937

The Puritan
1938

Man to Men
1948

The Dialogue of the Carmelites
1960

La lumière du lac
1988

Montmartre on the Seine
1941

Mirages
1938

Happy Days
1935

Hélène
1936

Youth in Revolt
1938

Musée Grévin
1958

The Southern Trail
1938

Blind Desire
1945

La Répétition ou l'Amour puni
1958

Les Fausses Confidences
1964

Carné, Prévert : drôle de duo
2019

Rhinocéros
1965
| Title | Year | Job |
|---|---|---|
| Prosessen | 1962 | Writer |