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." Description above from the Wikipedia article Jean-Louis Barrault, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Personal Details
Also Known As
Movies (41)
Le Fantôme de Laurent Terzieff
as Self (archive footage)
2020
Carné, Prévert : drôle de duo
as Self (archive footage)
2019
La lumière du lac
as Le vieux
1988
To Be Hamlet
as Self
1985
The Night of Varennes
as Nicolas Edmé Restif de la Bretonne
1982
The Birth of Children of Paradise
as Self
1967
Chappaqua
as Dr. Benoit
1966
Rhinocéros
1965
The Big Scare
1964
Les Fausses Confidences
as Dubois
1964
The Longest Day
as Father Louis Roulland
1962
Prosessen
Writer (Writing)
1962
Blood on His Sword
as Louis XI
1961
Experiment in Evil
as Dr. Cordelier / Opale
1960
The Dialogue of the Carmelites
as Mime
1960
La Répétition ou l'Amour puni
as Le comte
1958
Musée Grévin
as Self
1958
Royal Affairs in Versailles
as Fénelon
1954
With André Gide
as Self
1952
Venom and Eternity
as Self
1952
La Ronde
as The Poet
1950
Vagabonds imaginaires
as Narrator (segment 'Le bateau ivre') (voice)
1950
Man to Men
as Henri Dunant
1948
La Rose et le réséda
as Narrator (voice)
1947
Blind Desire
as Michel Kremer
1945
Children of Paradise
as Baptiste Debureau
1945
Angel of the Night
as Jacques Martin, le jeune sculpteur
1944
La Symphonie fantastique
as Hector Berlioz
1942
Montmartre on the Seine
as Michel Courtin
1941
Parade in 7 Nights
as Lucien Ardouin
1941
Mlle. Desiree
as Napoléon Bonaparte
1941
L'Or dans la montagne
as Maurice Farinet, le jeune paysan
1939
The Southern Trail
as Olcott
1938
Youth in Revolt
as Armand
1938
Mirages
as Pierre Bonvais
1938
I Accuse
1938
The Puritan
as Francis Ferriter
1938
Orage
as The African
1938
Bizarre, Bizarre
as William Kramps, le tueur de bouchers
1937
The Pearls of the Crown
as Bonaparte jeune
1937
Street of Shadows
as le client fou
1937
