Jean-Louis Barrault

Jean-Louis Barrault (1910-1994), French actor, director, and producer, who is especially noted for his work in mime. He was born in Le Vésinet, near Paris. Barrault studied and taught art and attended the École du Louvre, Paris, until 1931, when he enrolled in the school of the Théâtre de l'Atelier, where he stayed until 1935, giving particular attention to the study of mime. Five years later he joined the Comédie Française. In 1946 he and his wife, the actress Madeleine Renaud, resigned from the Comédie and formed the Renaud-Barrault Company at the Théâtre Marigny, Paris. He was appointed director of the Théâtre de France in 1959 and of the Théâtre des Nations in 1965; both theatres were sponsored by the French government. Following a dispute over his support of students who had seized the theatre in 1968, Barrault resigned from the Théâtre des Nations, and he and his wife re-formed the Renaud-Barrault Company.

Although Barrault is internationally famous for his work in mime, his range as a director and actor extended from Shakespeare and the French classics through contemporary comedy to experimental avant-garde works such as his own Rabelais (1968). He directed productions for the Metropolitan Opera Company, New York, and his companies toured the United States. Barrault appeared in such film classics as Carné's Les Enfants du Paradis (1945; Children of Paradise) in which he appeared as the 19th-century mime, Jean-Gaspard Debureau. His books, expressing his dedication to theatre as a total emotional and intellectual experience, include Reflections on the Theatre (1959; trans. 1961) and The Theatre of Jean-Louis Barrault (1961; translated 1961).