Jean Marais
Biography
"the
angels of death
stole
JEAN MARAIS
from
us"
"______________________
...I will hear
the promise of my Orpheus
sing...
david sylvian - orpheus.
______________________"
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jean marais
when the poets dreamed of angels what did they see?...
| Jean Marais (real name: Jean Villain-Marais), or "Jeannot" as Cocteau soon began calling him, was twenty-four when the two men met. Marais had been stage-struck since he was a boy in Cherbourg, but had received no encouragement from his family. Childhood had been one disaster after another. When he was born, on the eve of World War 1, his mother refused to see him. Her only daugher had died a few days befoe. When Marais' father returned from the army, five-year-old, who didn't remember him, asked his mother: "Who is this dumbbell that keeps pestering me?" His father slapped him, his mother promptly packed her three children off to their grandmother's, and Jean grew up fatherless. According to Marais, his mother, whom he idolized and whom he
nicknamed "Rosalie," was elegant and beautiful, stern but just, by turns
tender and gruff. Together they enjoyed dressing up to see Pearl White's
films, with little Jean's ears still singed by the
curling iron Madame Marais used to beautify her son's reddish hair.
A poor student, Jean was dismissed from highschool when, to amuse his classmates, he masqueraded as a girl and encouraged a teacher to flirt with him. At fourteen, a distraught adolescent seeking attention, Jean Marais came close to killing himself when he discharged a loaded revolver near his temple. His mother, he discovered, was a shoplifter, and to keep her from being caught, he acted for a time as her lookout in the shops she pilfered. After leaving school, he went to work as a
photographer's helper and finally enrolled in dramatic classes with the
great metteur-en-scene Charles Dullin. To pay the fees, he did bit
parts with Dullin and Marcel l'Herbier, the film director, for ten francs
a day. It was bone-wearying work, but the young man was happy to be at
last in the world of his choice. Marais' career began when Jean
Cocteau placed the actor in Oedipe-Roi in 1937, and the next year
cast him as Galahad in Les Chevaliers de la Table Ronde . Cocteau
became his surrogate father, and he was Cocteau's surrogate son. For the
next twenty-five years, love and hard work created an indissoluble bond
between these two men for whom the theater was life itself. Cocteau had
high expectations for his protege, and he was not disappointed. For full
half a century, ever since Cocteau gave him his first chance, Jean Marais was one of France's best-known actors, a star
on stage, screen, and television. Then, suddenly, on the 8th November 1998, the angels
of death stole Jean Marais from us. In Cannes,
France, Marais died of a heart attack at the age of
85. And so this world has lost forever the last link with the world of Jean Cocteau. Maria Casares, Josette Day, Madeline Sologne: all summoned by Cocteau to rest with him in the company of the angels of the other world. But Jean Marais will live on in the hearts of all who knew of him. Actor, painter, poet, sculptor...we can only hope that we will be able to follow you and your footsteps into the land of the eternal. |
|
Date of birth (location) 11 December 1913, Cherbourg, France Date of death (details) 8 November 1998 Cannes, France. (heart attack) |
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Acting Credits
Milice, film noir (1997)
Stealing Beauty (1996)
Les Miserables (1995)
Les Misérables (1995)
Misérables, Les (1995)
Les Enfants du Naufrageur (1992)
Next of Kin (1989)
Parental Claim (1986)
Parking (1985)
Donkey Skin (1971)
Donkey Skin (1970)
Jaque mate (1970)
Provocation, La (1969)
Pontius Pilate (1967)
Fantômas contre Scotland Yard (1966)
Saint prend l'affût, Le (1966)
Sept hommes et une garce (1966)
Train d'enfer (1966)
Fantomas Se Dechaine (1965)
MAN FROM COCODY (1965)
Pleins feux sur Stanislas (1965)
Fantomas (1964)
Fantômas (1964)
Le Gentleman de Cocody (1964)
Patate (1964)
Thomas l'imposteur (1964)
L' Honorable Stanislas, Agent Secret (1963)
Le Masque de Fer (1962)
Les Mystères de Paris (1962)
Ponzio Pilato (1962)
Miracle des loups, Le (1961)
Napoléon II, l'aiglon (1961)
The Rape of the Sabines (1961)
The Battle of Austerlistz (1960)
Capitaine Fracasse, Le (1960)
Capitan, Le (1960)
Le Testament d'Orphée (1960)
Princesse de Clèves (1960)
Testament of Orpheus (1960)
AUSTERLITZ (1959)
Bossu, Le (1959)
La Vie a Deux (1958)
Chaque jour a son secret (1957)
Girl in His Pocket (1957)
Julietta (1957)
La Tour, prends garde! (1957)
Le Notti Bianche (1957)
S.O.S. Noronha (1957)
Typhon sur Nagasaki (1957)
Un Amour de Poche (1957)
White Nights (1957)
Elena and Her Men (1956)
Si Paris Nous Etait Conté (1956)
Goubbiah, mon amour (1955)
IF PARIS WERE TOLD TO US (1955)
Napoleon (1955)
Napoléon (1955)
School for Love (1955)
Si Paris nous était conté (1955)
Si Versailles M'Etait Conté (1955)
Toute la ville accuse (1955)
Fabulous Versailles (1954)
Guérisseur, Le (1954)
Amants de minuit, Les (1953)
Appel du destin, L' (1953)
Comte de Monte-Cristo, Le (1953)
Inside a Girls' Dormitory (1953)
ROYAL AFFAIRS IN VERSAILLES (1953)
Amour Madame, L' (1952)
Conciencia acusa, La (1952)
Voice of Silence (1952)
Nez de cuir (1951)
Amante di una notte, L' (1950)
Château de verre, Le (1950)
Les Parents Terribles (1950)
Miracles n'ont lieu qu'une fois (1950)
Orpheus (1949)
Orphée (1949)
The Eagle Has Two Heads (1948)
L'Aigle A Deux Tetes (1948)
Le Secret de Mayerling (1948)
Les Parents Terribles (1948)
Parents terribles, Les (1948)
Ruy Blas (1948)
Souvenir (1948)
Aigle à deux têtes, L' (1947)
Chouans, Les (1947)
The Eagle with Two Heads (1947)
Ruy Blas (1947)
Beauty and the Beast (1946)
Love Eternal (1943)
Carmen (1942)
Hommes nouveaux, Les (1936)