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

• 2021Morceaux de Cannes
• 1999Les Renaud-Barrault, bâtisseurs de théâtre
• 1988La lumière du lac — Le vieux
• 1982That Night of Varennes — Nicolas Edmé Restif de la Bretonne
• 1966Chappaqua — Dr. Benoit
• 1965Rhinocéros
• 1964Les Fausses Confidences — Dubois
• 1964The Big Scare
• 1962Prosessen — Writer
• 1962The Longest Day — Father Louis Roulland
• 1961Blood on His Sword — Louis XI
• 1960Experiment in Evil — Dr. Cordelier / Opale
• 1960The Dialogue of the Carmelites — Mime
• 1958La Répétition ou l'Amour puni — Le comte
• 1953Royal Affairs in Versailles — Fénelon
• 1950La Ronde — The Poet
• 1950Vagabonds imaginaires — Narrator (segment 'Le bateau ivre') (voice)
• 1948Man to Men — Henri Dunant
• 1947La Rose et le réséda — Narrator (voice)
• 1947The Magnificent Cuckold — Bruno
• 1945Blind Desire — Michel Kremer
• 1945Children of Paradise — Baptiste Debureau
• 1944Angel of the Night — Jacques Martin, le jeune sculpteur
• 1942La Symphonie fantastique — Hector Berlioz
• 1942Mlle. Desiree — Napoléon Bonaparte
• 1941Montmartre on the Seine — Michel Courtin
• 1941Parade in 7 Nights — Lucien Ardouin
• 1939L'Or dans la montagne — Maurice Farinet, le jeune paysan
• 1938J'Accuse
• 1938Mirages — Pierre Bonvais
• 1938Orage — The African
• 1938The Puritan — Francis Ferriter
• 1938The Southern Trail — Olcott
• 1938Youth in Revolt — Armand
• 1937Bizarre, Bizarre — William Kramps, le tueur de bouchers
• 1937Social Police — Scoppa
• 1937Street of Shadows — le client fou
• 1937The Life and Loves of Beethoven — Karl van Beethoven
• 1937The Pearls of the Crown — Bonaparte jeune
• 1937À nous deux, madame la vie — Paul Briançon
• 1936Hélène — Pierre Régnier
• 1936Jenny — le Dromadaire
• 1936Under Western Eyes — Haldin
• 1935Happy Days — René

Appearances as themselves (19)

• 2020Le Fantôme de Laurent Terzieff — Self (archive footage)
• 2019Carné, Prévert : drôle de duo — Self (archive footage)
• 1985To Be Hamlet — Self
• Ciné regards — Self
• Encyclopédie audiovisuelle du cinéma — Self (archive footage)
• 30 millions d'amis — Self
• Cérémonie des César — Self - President
• Les Rendez-vous du dimanche — Self
• Midi Première — Self
• Numéro un — Self
• Le Grand Échiquier — Self, Self - Main Guest
• Samedi soir — Self
• À bout portant — Self
• 1967The Birth of Children of Paradise — Self
• Pour le plaisir — Self
• Discorama — Self
• 1958Musée Grévin — Self
• 1952Venom and Eternity — Self
• 1952With André Gide — Self