Jean Marais was a French actor, & the muse & lover of Jean Cocteau. I used to swoon seeing his work in film class.
Marais was born Jean-Alfred Villain-Marais in Cherbourg to a shoplifting, sometimes violent, sometimes loving mother. He was a student but always interested in drama.
He was expelled from school when, to amuse his friends, he dressed as a girl & flirted with a male teacher. After leaving school, Marais worked at various jobs, including newspaper boy, photographer, & sketch artist.
An early interest in painting, which would become a lifelong avocation, led to the twenty-year-old Marais's first opportunity in movies. After purchasing one of his paintings in 1933, director Marcel L'Herbier offered Marais small parts in several of his films.
The 24 year old Marais first met the 48 year old poet/writer/ director in 1937, when Marais auditioned for a supporting role in a revival of Cocteau's play Oedipe-Roi. Besides giving Marais the part, Cocteau fell instantly in love with the young man.
Marais & Cocteau became partners in both their personal & their professional lives. At Marais's suggestion, Cocteau wrote a screenplay designed as a vehicle for the ambitious actor, L'Éternel Retour in 1943. The film was to be both a commercial success & a critical triumph for both the filmmaker & star.
Marais continued to perform in movies & plays while German troops occupied France during WW II. He joined France's Second Armored Division after the liberation of Paris & drove trucks carrying fuel & ammunition to the front during the Allied invasion of Germany. Marais was eventually awarded the Croix de Guerre for his wartime service.
After the war in 1946, La Belle et la Bête, directed by Cocteau, introduced Marais to an American audience. His face and physique became pin-up photos for teenage girls & gay fans aware of his unpublicized relationship with Cocteau.
Marais went on to make more films with Cocteau: L'Aigle à Deux Têtes (1947), Les Parents Terribles (1948), Orphée (Orpheus, 1949) , & Le Testament d'Orphée (1960). He also starred in films by René Clément, Marc Allégret, Jean Renoir, Luchino Visconti, & Claude Lelouch.
Although the romantic relationship between Marais & Cocteau cooled down by 1949, but the couple remained close friends until Cocteau's death in 1963.
When his acting career slowed down in the 1970s, Marais lived retirement on the French Riviera. He went back to painting, & wrote several volumes of memoirs.
Marais appeared in his final screen role in 1996, in Bernardo Bertolucci's Stealing Beauty. The same year, he was awarded the Legion of Honor for his contribution to French cinema.
Marais had a career lasting for 6+ decades. Marais's blond, classical good looks & skillful acting were seen in more than 70 movies, plays & TV shows.
On stage, Marais achieved great success in classical roles. On screen, he established himself as a romantic leading man in poetic dramas, light comedies, crime melodramas & swashbuckling adventure stories.
Marais had been legally adopted by Cocteau so that he would be his inheritor. He died on November 8, 1998, aged 84, & was survived by his own adopted son, Marais Serge Marais.
Marais was born Jean-Alfred Villain-Marais in Cherbourg to a shoplifting, sometimes violent, sometimes loving mother. He was a student but always interested in drama.
He was expelled from school when, to amuse his friends, he dressed as a girl & flirted with a male teacher. After leaving school, Marais worked at various jobs, including newspaper boy, photographer, & sketch artist.
An early interest in painting, which would become a lifelong avocation, led to the twenty-year-old Marais's first opportunity in movies. After purchasing one of his paintings in 1933, director Marcel L'Herbier offered Marais small parts in several of his films.
The 24 year old Marais first met the 48 year old poet/writer/ director in 1937, when Marais auditioned for a supporting role in a revival of Cocteau's play Oedipe-Roi. Besides giving Marais the part, Cocteau fell instantly in love with the young man.
Marais & Cocteau became partners in both their personal & their professional lives. At Marais's suggestion, Cocteau wrote a screenplay designed as a vehicle for the ambitious actor, L'Éternel Retour in 1943. The film was to be both a commercial success & a critical triumph for both the filmmaker & star.
Marais continued to perform in movies & plays while German troops occupied France during WW II. He joined France's Second Armored Division after the liberation of Paris & drove trucks carrying fuel & ammunition to the front during the Allied invasion of Germany. Marais was eventually awarded the Croix de Guerre for his wartime service.
After the war in 1946, La Belle et la Bête, directed by Cocteau, introduced Marais to an American audience. His face and physique became pin-up photos for teenage girls & gay fans aware of his unpublicized relationship with Cocteau.
Marais went on to make more films with Cocteau: L'Aigle à Deux Têtes (1947), Les Parents Terribles (1948), Orphée (Orpheus, 1949) , & Le Testament d'Orphée (1960). He also starred in films by René Clément, Marc Allégret, Jean Renoir, Luchino Visconti, & Claude Lelouch.
Although the romantic relationship between Marais & Cocteau cooled down by 1949, but the couple remained close friends until Cocteau's death in 1963.
When his acting career slowed down in the 1970s, Marais lived retirement on the French Riviera. He went back to painting, & wrote several volumes of memoirs.
Marais appeared in his final screen role in 1996, in Bernardo Bertolucci's Stealing Beauty. The same year, he was awarded the Legion of Honor for his contribution to French cinema.
Marais had a career lasting for 6+ decades. Marais's blond, classical good looks & skillful acting were seen in more than 70 movies, plays & TV shows.
On stage, Marais achieved great success in classical roles. On screen, he established himself as a romantic leading man in poetic dramas, light comedies, crime melodramas & swashbuckling adventure stories.
Marais at the end of his career. He still has his striking good looks.
Marais had been legally adopted by Cocteau so that he would be his inheritor. He died on November 8, 1998, aged 84, & was survived by his own adopted son, Marais Serge Marais.
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