Jean Marais

Jean Marais — Biography

French actor, theatre director, writer, painter, sculptor and ceramic artist Jean Marais, in full Jean-Alfred Villain-Marais, was born in Cherbourg on 11 December 1913 and died in Cannes on 8 November 1998. One of the best-known stars of post-war French cinema, Marais appeared in more than seventy films and played popular heroes in productions ranging from swashbuckling costume pictures to spy films.

He was educated at the Lycée Condorcet in Paris. In 1937 he began a life together with the poet, playwright and director Jean Cocteau, who regarded him as his muse and directed him in many plays and films. Marais made his real breakthrough on stage in Cocteau's successful works: Œdipe Roi in 1937, Les Parents terribles the following year and La Machine à écrire in 1941. After their relationship ended the two remained close friends.

His turning point in cinema was L'Éternel Retour (1943), written by Cocteau after the legend of Tristan and Iseult and directed by Jean Delannoy; in the middle of the Second World War the film made him an icon of French youth. Cocteau then gave him leading roles in the films he directed himself, La Belle et la Bête (1946), L'Aigle à deux têtes (1948), Les Parents terribles (1949) and Orphée (1950), and also wrote the screenplays for Ruy Blas (1948) and La Princesse de Clèves (1961).

From the 1950s on he gave new life to cloak-and-dagger films and became the popular hero of costume adventure cinema. Films such as Le Comte de Monte Cristo (1955), Le Bossu (1959), Le Capitan (1960), Le Capitaine Fracasse and Le Miracle des loups (1961), Les Mystères de Paris and Le Masque de fer (1962), mostly made under the direction of André Hunebelle, drew large audiences. He performed most of his dangerous scenes himself, fifteen years before Jean-Paul Belmondo.

Turning to modern action and spy films in the 1960s, he is remembered above all for the Fantômas trilogy: Fantômas (1964), Fantômas se déchaîne (1965) and Fantômas contre Scotland Yard (1967). In these films he played both the masked criminal genius Fantômas and the journalist Fandor. In the 1966 production Le Saint prend l'affût he took the role of Simon Templar.

In later years, apart from Peau d'âne (1970), directed by Jacques Demy, he made fewer films for lack of offers; he concentrated on the theatre and became a recognised sculptor and potter in Vallauris. On television he took the title role in Joseph Balsamo (1973), and in his later years he appeared in productions such as Lien de parenté (1986), Les Enfants du naufrageur (1992) and Stealing Beauty (1996). In 1993 he received an Honorary César for his whole career and in 1996 the Légion d'honneur for his contributions to French cinema; he died in Cannes at the age of 84.