Jean Marais

Jean Marais
Photograph by Carl Van Vechten, 1947
Born	Jean-Alfred Villain-Marais (1913-12-11)11 December 1913 Cherbourg, France
Died	8 November 1998(1998-11-08) (aged 84) Cannes, France
Occupations	Actor film director theatre director painter sculptor visual artist writer photographer
Years active	1933–1996
Partners	Jean Cocteau (1937–1947) Georges Reich (1948–1959)
Children	Serge Villain-Marais (adoptive)

Jean-Alfred Villain-Marais (11 December 1913 – 8 November 1998), known professionally as Jean Marais (French:

A native of Cherbourg, France, Marais was a son of Alfred Emmanuel Victor Paul Villain-Marais, a veterinarian, and his wife, the former Aline Marie Louise Vassord.^[4] Having recently lost a two-year-old daughter Madeleine, Aline was very disappointed when she gave birth to a boy. She came to accept him but until Jean was six or seven years old his mother raised him as if he were a girl, dressing him like one and giving him dolls to play with. Sometimes Aline was mysteriously absent from home. When he was eighteen, Marais became aware that his mother was a kleptomaniac and that she had been imprisoned for several months or even years in her lifetime.^[5]

Career

Early films

Marais' first role was an uncredited bit in

These were small roles. Marais also appeared on stage. He was in a 1937 stage production of Oedipe directed by Charles Dullin, where he was seen by Jean Cocteau. Marais impressed Cocteau, who cast the actor in his play Les Chevaliers de la table ronde.^[6]

Marais appeared in Cocteau's play Les Parents terribles (1938), supposedly based on Marais' home life, which was a great success.^[6]

Marais had bigger film parts in

Marais went on to appear in

1970s

After 1970, Marais preferred concentrating on his stage work, and his movie performances became fewer.

His film credits included

He directed stage productions of Le bel indifférent (1975) and Les Parents terribles. He took the latter to London in 1978.^[13]

Later career

His later work included

He performed on stage until his 80s, also working as a sculptor. His sculpture Le passe muraille (The Walker Through Walls) can be seen in the Montmartre Quarter of Paris.^[14]

In 1985, he was the head of the jury at the 35th Berlin International Film Festival. He was featured in the 1995 documentary Screening at the Majestic, which is included on the 2003 DVD release of the restored print of Beauty and the Beast.^[15]

Personal life

Marais was Jean Cocteau's lover from 1937 to 1947, his muse and longtime friend.^[16] After Cocteau's death, Marais wrote a memoir of Cocteau, L'Inconcevable Jean Cocteau, attributing authorship to "Cocteau-Marais". He also wrote an autobiography, Histoires de ma vie, published in 1975. From 1948 until 1959, his companion was the American dancer George Reich.^[4] He is rumored to have been among the lovers of Umberto II of Italy.^[17]

In the early 1960s, Marais adopted a young man, Serge Ayala, who eventually took the name Serge Villain-Marais. This adopted son, who became a singer and an actor, committed suicide in 2012 at age 69 after an inheritance litigation and bouts of loneliness and depression.^[18][19]

Death

Marais died from cardiovascular disease in Cannes, Alpes-Maritimes in 1998. He is interred in the Village cemetery at Vallauris, near Antibes.^[20]

In popular culture

The character Tragicomix, in the comic book Asterix the Legionary of 1967, has his characteristics based on Jean Marais.

His life story became the inspiration for the 1980 François Truffaut film The Last Metro.^[21]

In 1983, a still shot of him from Jean Cocteau's 1950 film Orphée was featured on the cover of The Smiths' "This Charming Man."

Filmography

See also

• Place Jean-Marais

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jean Marais.

• Jean Marais at the Internet Broadway Database
• Jean Marais at
  IMDb
• Eternel Jean Marais
• Jean Marais at Find a Grave
• Jean Marais at the Films de France