(1932-1984) French New Wave film director and actor. He was formerly a critic. A romantic and intensely humane filmmaker, he wrote and directed a series of semiautobiographical films starring Jean-Pierre Léaud, beginning with Les Qatre Cent Coups/The 400 Blows 1959. His other films include Jules et Jim 1961, Fahrenheit 451 1966, L’Enfant sauvage/The Wild Child 1970, and La Nuit américaine/Day for Night 1973 (Academy Award).
His passion in cinema led to a job as film critic for Cahiers du cinéma during the 1950s before embarking on his career as director. His later work includes The Story of Adčle H 1975 and Le Dernier Métro/The Last Metro 1980. He played one of the leading roles in Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1977.
He was influenced by Alfred Hitchcock, and also drew on Surrealist and comic traditions.