# Jean-Louis Barrault

Jean-Louis Bernard Barrault (French:; 8 September 1910 – 22 January 1994) was a French actor, director and mime artist who worked on both screen and stage.

## Biography

Barrault was born in Le Vésinet in France in 1910. His father was 'a Burgundian pharmacist who died in the First World War.'$^{:87}$ He studied at the Collége Chaptal until 1930, when he began his studies at the École du Louvre.$^{:87}$

### Theatre

From 1931 to 1935 Barrault studied and acted at Charles Dullin's L'Atelier.$^{:32}$ His first performance was a small role in Ben Jonson's Volpone. At the time, Barrault was unable to afford rent and Dullin allowed him to sleep in the theatre on Volpone's bed.$^{:16}$ It was L'Atelier that he first met and studied under Étienne Decroux,$^{:41}$ with whom he would create the pantomime La Vie Primitive in 1931.$^{:87}$
He was a member of the Comédie-Française from 1942 to 1946, performing lead roles in Shakespeare's Hamlet and Corneille's Le Cid.$^{:32}$ He and his wife, actress Madeleine Renaud, formed their own troupe, Compagnie Renaud-Barrault, in 1946 at Paris' Théâtre Marigny.$^{:161}$ In 1951 he published his memoirs, Reflections on the Theatre.
He was made director of Théâtre de France in 1959, and remained in the role until 1969. In 1971 he was reappointed director of Théâtre des Nations. He retired from the theatre in 1990.$^{:87}$

### Film

In 1935 he had his first film role in Marc Allégret's Les Beaux Jours.$^{:87}$ He would go on to act in nearly 50 movies over the course of his career. One of his most famous performances was in Marcel Carné's film Les Enfants du Paradis (1945), in which he played the mime Jean-Gaspard Deburau.$^{:161}$

## Personal life

He was the uncle of actress Marie-Christine Barrault and sometime sponsor of Peter Brook. In 1940, he married the actress Madeleine Renaud. They founded a number of theaters together and toured extensively, including in South America.

## Death

Barrault died from a heart attack in Paris on 22 January 1994, at the age of 83.$^{:87}$ He is buried with his wife Madeleine in the Passy Cemetery in Paris.

## Filmography

| Year | Title | Role | Director | Notes |
| 1935 | Beautiful Days | René | Marc Allégret | |
| 1936 | Mayerling | Student | Anatole Litvak | Uncredited |
| 1936 | Under Western Eyes | Haldin | Marc Allégret | |
| 1936 | Jenny | Le Dromadaire | Marcel Carné | |
| 1936 | Helene | Pierre Régnier | Jean Benoît-Lévy | |
| 1936 | Beethoven's Great Love | Karl van Beethoven | Abel Gance | |
| 1937 | À nous deux, madame la vie | Paul Briançon | René Guissart and Yves Mirande | |
| 1937 | Police mondaine | Scoppa | Michel Bernheim and Christian Chamborant | |
| 1937 | Street of Shadows | Le client fou | G. W. Pabst | |
| 1937 | The Pearls of the Crown | young Napoleon | Sacha Guitry and Christian-Jaque | |
| 1937 | Bizarre, Bizarre | William Kramps | Marcel Carné | |
| 1938 | Orage | the African | Marc Allégret | |
| 1938 | Le puritain | Francis Ferriter | Jeff Musso | |
| 1938 | J'accuse! | | Abel Gance | |
| 1938 | Mirages | Pierre Bonvais | Alexandre Ryder | |
| 1938 | Altitude 3.200 | Armand | Jean Benoît-Lévy and Marie Epstein | |
| 1938 | La Piste du sud | Olcott | Pierre Billon | |
| 1939 | Farinet ou l'or dans la montagne | Maurice Farinet | Max Haufler | |
| 1941 | Parade en sept nuits | Lucien Ardouin | Marc Allégret | |
| 1941 | Montmartre-sur-Seine | Michel Courtin | Georges Lacombe | |
| 1942 | La Symphonie fantastique | Hector Berlioz | Christian-Jaque | |
| 1942 | Le Destin fabuleux de Désirée Clary | Napoléon Bonaparte | Sacha Guitry | |
| 1944 | L'Ange de la nuit | Jacques Martin | André Berthomieu | |
| 1945 | Children of Paradise | Baptiste Deburau | Marcel Carné | |
| 1945 | Blind Desire | Michel Kremer | Jean Delannoy | |
| 1947 | Le Cocu magnifique | Bruno | E.G. de Meyst | |
| 1948 | Man to Men | Henri Dunant | Christian-Jaque | |
| 1950 | Vagabonds imaginaires | Le récitant | Alfred Chaumel and Jacques Dufilho | Voice, (segment 'Le bateau ivre') |
| 1950 | La Ronde | Robert Kuhlenkampf, the poet | Max Ophüls | |
| 1951 | Traité de bave et d'éternité | Himself | Isidore Isou | |
| 1954 | Royal Affairs in Versailles | Fénelon | Sacha Guitry | |
| 1959 | The Doctor's Horrible Experiment | Doctor Cordelier / Opale | Jean Renoir | TV movie |
| 1960 | Le dialogue des Carmélites | Le mime | Philippe Agostini and Raymond Leopold Bruckberger | |
| 1961 | Le Miracle des loups | Louis XI of France | André Hunebelle | |
| 1962 | The Longest Day | Father Roulland | Ken Annakin | |
| 1964 | La grande frousse | Douve | Jean-Pierre Mocky | |
| 1966 | Chappaqua | Doctor Benoit | Conrad Rooks | |
| 1977 | Jacques Prévert | Himself | Jean Desvilles | |
| 1980 | The Lovers' Exile | Introducer | Marty Gross | |
| 1982 | That Night in Varennes | Nicolas-Edme Rétif | Ettore Scola | |
| 1988 | La Lumière du lac | Le vieux | Francesca Comencini | |