(1910-1994)
French actor and stage director. He appeared in such films as La Symphonie fantastique 1942 and La Ronde 1950, and is perhaps best known for his role as the mime, Baptiste, in Marcel Carné’s classic of the cinema Les Enfants du Paradis 1945.
He was producer and director to the Comédie Française 1940–46, and in 1946 set up the Compagnie Renaud-Barrault with his wife Madeleine Renaud, the company’s leading actress. He became director of the Théâtre de France (formerly Odéon) from 1958, and presented a wide repertory, including a production of Eugene Ionesco’s Rhinocéros, playing the lead himself. He was dismissed 1968 because of statements made during the student unrest of that year, but continued to stage shows and glasses in Paris and around the world. He was awarded the Légion d’Honneur 1991.