Jean Marais
Although he harbored a desire to act, Jean Marais was rejected by the top drama schools in France. The son of a doctor from whom his mother separated in 1917, he came to the attention of film director Maurice L'Herbier who cast him in small roles in "L'Epervier" and "L'Aventurier" (both 1933). Marais worked at the theater run by Charles Dullin in return for acting classes and a chance to play minor stage roles. In 1937, the actor met the man who would change his life--poet, playwright and designer Jean Cocteau. They became lovers and Cocteau began to utilize the handsome Marais in various stage productions like "Oedipe Roi" and as Sir Galahad in "Les Chevaliers de la table rond." The writer created the role of the smothered son in "Les Parents terribles" especially for the actor, which proved an artistic high point for both. With his striking looks, ethereal charm and vulnerability, Marais proved a perfect choice to embody Cocteau's tragic heroes. He first made his mark in the author's retelling of the Tristan and Isolde myth in "L'Eternal retourne/The Eternal Return" (1943), directed by Jean Delannoy. But perhaps their best-known collaboration remains the poetic masterpiece "La Belle et la bete/Beauty and the Beast" (1945). Of their remaining films together, the 1948 version of "Les parents terribles" ranks as the best. By the time of "Orphee" (1949), their personal relationship was ending, although they remained close friends. The 1950s saw Marais undertake swashbuckling roles and become France's version of Errol Flynn in a number of popular but critically-derided vehicles like "The Count of Monte Cristo" (1954) and "Le Bossu" (1959). On the advice of Cocteau, he accepted the role of "Fantomas" in the 1964 remake and went on to essay the athletic master criminal in several sequels. In 1970, Jacques Demy tapped him to appear as the widowed king seeking a new queen in the fairy tale "Peau d'ane/Donkey Skin," which was an homage to Cocteau. By then, though, his film career was all but over and Marais returned to the stage, reviving Cocteau plays and appearing as "King Lear." He reteamed with Demy to play the Devil in "Parking" (1985), an ill-advised musical version of "Orphee." His last screen appearances were in Claude Lelouch's "Les Miserables" (1994) and Bernardo Bertolucci's "Stealing Beauty" (1995).
Photos
Jean Marais
Filmography
Movies
Credit | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
50% |
|
Stealing Beauty | M. Guillaume (Character) | $4.6M | 1996 |
81% |
|
Les misérables | Mgr Myriel (Character) | $365.2K | 1995 |
No Score Yet |
|
Parking | Hades (Character) | - | 1985 |
90% |
|
Peau D'ane | Le premier roi (Character) | - | 1970 |
No Score Yet |
|
Fantomas vs Scotland Yard |
Fantômas/ |
- | 1967 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Napoleon II -- L'Aiglon | General de Montholon (Character) | - | 1966 |
No Score Yet |
|
Fantomas Strikes Back |
Fantômas/ |
- | 1965 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Operation Double Cross | Antoine Donadieu (Character) | - | 1965 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Killer Spy | Stanislas Dubois (Character) | - | 1965 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Man From Cocody | Jean-Luc Hervé de la Tommeraye (Character) | - | 1965 |
No Score Yet |
|
Fantomas |
Fantômas/ |
- | 1964 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Friend of the Family | Noël Carradine (Character) | - | 1964 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Reluctant Spy | Stanislas (Character) | - | 1963 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Invincible Swordsman | François de Capestan (Character) | - | 1963 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Man in the Iron Mask | D'Artagnan (Character) | - | 1962 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Devil of Paris | Rodolphe de Sombreuil (Character) | - | 1962 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Iron Mask | Charles d'Artagnan (Character) | - | 1962 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Mysteries of Paris | Rodolphe de Sombreuil (Character) | - | 1962 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Romulus and the Sabines | Marte (Character) | - | 1961 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Pontius Pilate | Ponzio Pilato (Character) | - | 1961 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Blood on His Sword | Robert de Neuville (Character) | - | 1961 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Le capitaine Fracasse | Baron Philippe de Sigognac (Character) | - | 1961 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Captain Blood | Le Capitan (Character) | - | 1960 |
89% |
|
Testament of Orpheus | Oedipe (Character) | - | 1960 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Princess of Cleves | Le Prince de Clèves (Character) | - | 1960 |
40% |
|
Battle of Austerlitz | Carnot (Character) | - | 1960 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Hunchback | Henri de Lagardère (Character) | - | 1959 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Girl in His Pocket | Prof. Jerome (Character) | - | 1958 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | King on Horseback | Henri La Tour (Character) | - | 1958 |
89% |
|
White Nights | L'inquilino (Character) | - | 1957 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Typhoon on Nagasaki | Pierre Marsac (Character) | - | 1957 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | La tour, prends garde ! | Unknown (Character) | - | 1957 |
71% |
|
Elena and Her Men | Général François Rollan (Character) | - | 1956 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Typhoon Over Nagasaki | Unknown (Character) | - | 1956 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Count of Monte-Cristo |
Edmond Dantès/ |
- | 1955 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | School for Love | Eric Walter (Character) | - | 1954 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Royal Affairs in Versailles | Louis XV (Character) | - | 1954 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Le comte de Monte-Cristo : la trahison | Edmond Dantès (Character) | - | 1954 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Le comte de Monte-Cristo: la vengeance | Edmond Dantès (Character) | - | 1954 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Julietta | André Landrecourt (Character) | - | 1953 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Voice of Silence | L'ancien maquisard (Character) | - | 1953 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Inside a Girls' Dormitory | Inspecteur Désiré Marco (Character) | - | 1953 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Leathernose | Roger de Tainchebraye (Character) | - | 1952 |
97% |
|
Orpheus | Orphée (Character) | - | 1950 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Glass Castle | Rémy Marsay (Character) | - | 1950 |
100% |
|
The Storm Within | Michel (Character) | $11.8K | 1949 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Eagle Has Two Heads | Stanislas (Character) | - | 1948 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | To the Eyes of Memory | Unknown (Character) | - | 1948 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Ruy Blas | Ruy Blas (Character) | - | 1947 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Carmen | Don José (Character) | - | 1947 |
96% |
|
Beauty and the Beast |
Avenant/ |
$138.2K | 1946 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Royalists | Le marquis de Montauran (Character) | - | 1946 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Eternal Return | Patrice (Character) | - | 1943 |