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Jean Marais

Highest Rated: 100% The Storm Within (1949)

Lowest Rated: 40% Battle of Austerlitz (1960)

Birthday: Dec 11, 1913

Birthplace: Cherbourg, France

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).

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Highest-Rated Movies

100% 75% The Storm Within Watchlist
97% 89% Orpheus
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96% 90% Beauty and the Beast
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89% 77% Peau D'ane
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89% 88% White Nights
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88% 82% Testament of Orpheus
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81% 83% Les misérables
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71% 38% Elena and Her Men
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49% 75% Stealing Beauty
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40% 75% Battle of Austerlitz
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Filmography

Movies TV Shows
Stealing Beauty 49% 75% 1996 M. Guillaume Actor Les misérables 81% 83% 1995 Mgr Myriel Actor Parking 0% 1985 Hades Actor Peau D'ane 89% 77% 1970 Le premier roi Actor Fantomas vs Scotland Yard 65% 1967 Fantômas/Fandor Actor Napoleon II -- L'Aiglon 1966 General de Montholon Actor Fantomas Strikes Back 67% 1965 Fantômas/Fandor/Professeur Lefèvre Actor Operation Double Cross 1965 Antoine Donadieu Actor Killer Spy 1965 Stanislas Dubois Actor Man From Cocody 1965 Jean-Luc Hervé de la Tommeraye Actor Fantomas 72% 1964 Fantômas/Fandor Actor Friend of the Family 1964 Noël Carradine Actor The Reluctant Spy 1963 Stanislas Actor Invincible Swordsman 1963 François de Capestan Actor The Man in the Iron Mask 1962 D'Artagnan Actor Devil of Paris 1962 Rodolphe de Sombreuil Actor The Iron Mask 1962 Charles d'Artagnan Actor The Mysteries of Paris 1962 Rodolphe de Sombreuil Actor Romulus and the Sabines 1961 Marte Actor Pontius Pilate 1961 Ponzio Pilato Actor Le capitaine Fracasse 1961 Baron Philippe de Sigognac Actor Blood on His Sword 1961 Robert de Neuville Actor Captain Blood 1960 Le Capitan Actor Testament of Orpheus 88% 82% 1960 Oedipe Actor Princess of Cleves 1960 Le Prince de Clèves Actor
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