Jean Louis Barrault

One of France's most celebrated stage director, producer and actor Jean-Louis Barrault was born in Yvelines, France on September 8, 1910. He was a mime and a tragedian and was a driving force to revive French theatre after WWII. He hid French Underground members on his film sets and specifically Children of Paradise in 1945.
Barrault supported himself as a teacher, bookkeeper and flower salesman. He made his official first film with Vagabonds imaginaries in 1930. He played in Volpone at the Theatre de l'Atelier in 1931 and was in Drole de Drame in 1937, Mirages in 1938 and Children of Paradise in 1945. He loved theatre and made his directorial debut with Les beaux jours in 1935.
In 1936 Barrault married Madeleine Renaud and they founded theaters and toured with European theater in Christopher Columbus in 1957, The Misanthrope in 1957, The Marriage of Figaro in 1964 and on Broadway with Baptise, The Trial, Scapin, and Hamlet.
Barrault's portrayal of Baptiste in Children of Paradise (1945) revived interest in pantomime and inspired Marcel Marceau. His acting in the film Children of Paradise is still studied in acting and mime schools. From175 to 1981 Barrault was the director of the Theatre d'Orsay and he performed his last film at the age of 78 in La lumiere de lac in 1988. He died of a heart attack in Paris on January 22, 1994.