Jouvet, Louis (1887-1951), French director, actor, stage-designer, film star, teacher, and writer: an outstanding figure in 20th-century French theatre. Born in Crozon, Brittany, he originally worked as a chemist, but was strongly attracted to the theatre. In Paris he was refused entrance to the Conservatoire d'Art Dramatique because of his severe stammer. After a few minor roles in melodramas, he made his professional stage debut alongside Charles Dullin in the role of Father Zosima in The Brothers Karamazov (1911). In 1913 Jacques Copeau invited him to join the newly created Vieux Colombier company. He worked there as a stage-manager, stage-designer, and electrician, but attracted attention particularly for his interpretation of Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Twelfth Night. Between 1914 and 1917 he served in the army, and then went to New York with Copeau. When the Vieux Colombier reopened in 1920, Jouvet devised a unique open stage, with no proscenium arch. In 1922 he joined the Comédie des Champs-Élysées: after a few early difficulties he was universally praised for his performance in Knock, by Jules Romains (1923). In 1924 Jacques Hébertot appointed Jouvet director of the company.

Financial difficulties were never far away but Jouvet and Dullin joined forces to found the famous Cartel des Quatre with Pitoeff and Baty in 1927. In 1928 Jouvet staged Siegfried by Jean Giraudoux, and, until 1939, this close and fertile collaboration produced much great modern theatrical work. In 1934 he was appointed director of the Théâtre de l'Athénée, since renamed Athénée-Louis-Jouvet. Jean Cocteau recommended him to Christian Bérard, who conceived most of his stage designs with great success. During the Nazi occupation Giraudoux and Romains were under censorship, so Jouvet decided to tour Latin America with his company. On his return in 1945 he paid a final tribute to Giraudoux, who had died in his absence, by directing La Folle de Chaillot. In 1947 he attempted a production of Les Bonnes by Jean Genet, without success, and turned instead to the classics and Molière, with a particularly daring production of Tartuffe in 1950. He died, like Molière, on stage, while directing Sartre's Le Diable.

As a film actor, he made unforgettable contributions to cinema. He is best remembered for performances in, among others, Topaze (1933), Knock (1933), Un Carnet de Bal directed by Duvivier, Drôle de Drame by Marcel Carné (1937), Hôtel du Nord by Carné (1938), and Quai des Orfèvres by Henri-Georges Clouzot (1947).

An indefatigable worker, Jouvet was also an exacting teacher in his Conservatoire class, although producing accomplished actors was not his primary motive. Today the compelling force of his teaching is universally recognized: the overwhelming success of Elvire-Jouvet 40 (1986, directed by Brigitte Jaques, who based the script on Jouvet's teaching notes; Elvira, 1992) in France, England, Canada, and New York, rests not only on quality performances, but also on the impact of Jouvet's lessons: between the two extremes of Bertolt Brecht and Konstantin Stanislavski, he warned of the dangers of depersonalization. His teachings do not only concern theatre but address a major problem of our time: how to teach, how to learn.

Among his books are Molière et la Comédie Classique, Tragédie Classique et Théâtre du XIXè Siècle, Témoignages sur le Théâtre, and Le Comédien Désincarné.