Background

Jean Marais was born on December 11, 1913, in Cherbourg. He was a son of Alfred Emmanuel Victor Paul Villain-Marais and his wife, the former Aline Marie Louise Vassord.

Education

From an early age, Marais set his heart on becoming an actor, although he received no encouragement from his family. Having failed a screen test for Jean Tarride's film, and having been turned down by the Paris Conservatory, he took acting classes with Charles Dullin.

Career

After working as a photographer’s apprentice, Jean began playing bit parts and walk-ons in film and on stage, making his motion-picture debut in 1933. Despite his handsome features and muscular physique, Marais’s thin voice and limited acting ability restricted the type and size of roles he played.

Marais' first stroke of luck came in 1937 when he met Jean Cocteau, the legendary French writer who would become a life-long friend of Marais and to whom Marais would owe most of his success. Cocteau gave Marais his first substantial acting job, a non-speaking part in his stage play.

During the World War II, Marais was an actor in occupied Paris. After the liberation of Paris in 1944, he became a truck driver for the French Army, he was decorated for his courage. Marais made his big break in cinema, appearing in Jean Delannoy's 1943 film L'Éternal retour (after a personal recommendation from his friend Cocteau). This was the turning point in Marais' life, and the start of a film career which was to span nearly sixty years. He worked for Cocteau almost exclusively until, eventually, his maturity, experience, and acting ability led other directors to seek him out for lead roles.

Among the more than 70 films he appeared in are La Belle et la bête (1946; Beauty and the Beast), L’Aigle à deux têtes (1948; Eagle with Two Heads), Les Parents terribles (1948; The Storm Within), Le Secret de Mayerling (1949; The Secret of Mayerling), Orphée (1950; Orpheus), and Éléna et les hommes (1956; Paris Does Strange Things).

During the 1960s and 1970s, Marais went on to star in several popular comedies, such as the Fantômas (1964) trilogy by director André Hunebelle. He co-starred with many major French actors of the time, including such stars as Louis de Funès and Mylène Demongeot in the Fantomas trilogy, and also Jean Gabin, Guy Delorme, Bourvil, Danielle Darrieux, Michèle Morgan, and Yves Montand.

Jean directed stage productions of Le bel indifférent (1975) and Les parents terribles. He took the latter to London in 1978. His later work included Emmenez-moi au théâtre; Parking (1985) directed by Demy; Lien de parenté (1986); Les enfants du naufrageur (1992); Dis Papa, raconte-moi là-bas (1993); Les Misérables (1995 film), directed by Claude Lelouch; and Stealing Beauty (1996), directed by Bernardo Bertolucci.

Jean Marais was also a remarkable stage actor known for his association with Théâtre de Paris, Théâtre de l'Atelie, and the Comédie Francaise, among others. He spent his later years living in his house in Vallaruis, in the South of France where he was involved in painting, sculpture, and pottery, and was visited by Pablo Picasso and other cultural figures.

Achievements

• In 1996, Jean Marais was awarded the French Legion of Honor for his contributions to French Cinema. His life story became the inspiration for the 1980 François Truffaut film The Last Metro.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Jean Marais, mes métamorphoses 1996
  • L'inconcevable Jean Cocteau 1993

• movie

  • Orpheus

    (This 1950 update of the Orphic myth by Jean Cocteau (Beau...)

    1949
  • Les Parents terribles

    (In this heartbreaking drama based on Cocteau's highly suc...)

    1948
  • Fantomas

    (Mysterious Fantomas is terrorizing France. Inspector Juve...)

    1964
  • The Beauty and the Beast

    (Jean Cocteau's sublime adaptation of Mme. Leprince de Bea...)

    1946
  • Abus de confiance
  • L'Éternel retour 1943
  • Voyage sans espoir 1943
  • La Princesse de Clèves 1961
  • Pontius Pilate 1962
  • Le Masque de fer 1962
  • Fantômas se déchaîne 1965
  • Sapte baieti si o strengarita 1966
  • Fantômas contre Scotland Yard 1966

Views

Quotations: "Life is unfair. I got nothing but the best."

"What has always attracted me in life is poetry. Any genre can have poetry. For me, poetry contains truth."

Personality

Jean Marais was bisexual. Jean Marais almost always performed all the tricks himself. Modest and good-humored, he always claimed that life had been unfairly good to him. ''I always wanted to be happy,'' he said in an interview last year with Le Figaro.

Physical Characteristics: Jean Marais' height was 5 ft 0 in/182 cm, and his weight was 187 lb/85 kg.

Interests

• painting, sculpture

• Sport & Clubs

  table tennis, swimming

Connections

Jean Marais was married for two years to the actress Mila Parély. Marais also adopted a young man, Serge Ayala, who eventually took the name Serge Villain-Marais.

Father:

Alfred Marais

Mother:

Marie-Louise (nee Vassord) Villain-Marais

Wife:

Mila Parély

adopted son:

Serge Villain-Marais

Serge Villain-Marais was a singer and an actor, committed suicide in 2012 at age 69.

Partner:

Jean Cocteau

Jean Marais was a lover and a muse of French director Jean Cocteau.

References

• Jean Marais, L'Enfant Terrible
  1999
• Jean Marais: Le Bien-aimé
  2002
• Jean Marais: Biographie
  1994