Jean-Louis Barrault

Jean-Louis Barrault

  • Birthday: 1910-09-08
  • Deathday: 1994-01-22
  • Place of birth: Le Vésinet, Yvelines, Île-de-France, France
  • Also know as: Jean-Louis Bernard 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." Description above from the Wikipedia article Jean-Louis Barrault, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.​

Filmography

The Doctor's Horrible Experiment

1960

As Dr. Cordelier / Opale

Chappaqua

1966

As Dr. Benoit

The Night of Varennes

1982

As Nicolas Edmé Restif de la Bretonne

La Symphonie fantastique

1942

As Hector Berlioz

Man to Men

1948

As Henri Dunant

Youth in Revolt

1938

As Armand

La Rose et le réséda

1947

As Narrator (voice)

L'Or dans la montagne

1939

As Maurice Farinet, le jeune paysan

Vagabonds imaginaires

1950

As Narrator (segment 'Le bateau ivre') (voice)

Children of Paradise

1945

As Baptiste Debureau

The Puritan

1938

As Francis Ferriter

Angel of the Night

1944

As Jacques Martin, le jeune sculpteur

Mlle. Desiree

1941

As Napoléon Bonaparte

The Life and Loves of Beethoven

1937

As Karl van Beethoven

Montmarte on the Seine

1941

As Michel Courtin

Hélène

1936

As Pierre Régnier

Blind Desire

1945

As Michel Kremer

Venom and Eternity

1951

As Self

Bizarre, Bizarre

1937

As William Kramps, le tueur de bouchers

Mirages

1938

As Pierre Bonvais

Musée Grévin

1958

As Self

À nous deux, madame la vie

1937

As Paul Briançon

With André Gide

1952

As Self

Blood on His Sword

1961

As Louis XI

The Southern Trail

1938

As Olcott

Social Police

1937

As Scoppa

Orage

1938

As L'Africain

Happy Days

1935

As René

The Longest Day

1962

As Father Louis Roulland

Under Western Eyes

1936

As Haldin

To Be Hamlet

1985

As Jean-Louis Barrault

Jenny

1936

As le Dromadaire

Street of Shadows

1937

As le client fou

La Ronde

1950

As The Poet

I Accuse

1938

As

Parade in 7 Nights

1941

As Lucien Ardouin

Le Fantôme de Laurent Terzieff

2020

As Self (archive footage)

The Pearls of the Crown

1937

As Bonaparte jeune

Production

Prosessen

1962

As Writer

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