Jean-Alfred Villain-Marais (11 December 1913 – 8 November 1998), known professionally as Jean Marais (French: [ʒɑ̃ maʁɛ]), was a French actor, theatre director, painter, sculptor, visual artist, writer and photographer. In 1937, Marais became the lover of acclaimed poet, playwright and film director Jean Cocteau, who considered him his muse and directed him in multiple plays and films, notably Beauty and the Beast (1946). Following their relationship, Marais and Cocteau remained close friends and Marais later endeavored to keep Cocteau's legacy alive. During the post-war period, Marais was one of France's major film stars and performed in various successful swashbuckler films. In 1996, he was awarded the French Legion of Honor for his contributions to French cinema.
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. 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.
Marais' first role was an uncredited bit in On the Streets (1933) and he was in Etienne (1933). Filmmaker Marcel L'Herbier put him in The Sparrowhawk (1933) with Charles Boyer; The Scandal (1934), with Gaby Morlay; Happiness (1934) again with Boyer, The Venturer (1934) with Victor Francen; The New Men (1934) with Harry Baur; and Nights of Fire (1937) with Morlay and Francen.
Marcel Carné gave Marais a small role in Bizarre, Bizarre (1937) and the actor was in Abused Confidence (1937) by Henri Decoin; The Patriot (1938), a biopic of Paul I of Russia with Baur, directed by Maurice Tourneur; and Remontons les Champs-Élysées (1938) directed by Sacha Guitry.
Marais performed 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.
Marais appeared in Cocteau's play Les Parents terribles (1938), supposedly based on Marais' home life, which was a great success.
Marais had bigger film parts in The Pavilion Burns (1941) directed by Jacques de Baroncelli, and The Four Poster (1942) directed by Roland Tual.
On stage he appeared in La Machine à ecrire (1941) by Cocteau and he directed and designed Racine's Britannicus (1941). He performed briefly with the Comédie-Française. In 1941, after Alain Laubreaux, theater critic for the collaborationist newspaper Je suis partout, wrote an insulting review of La Machine à écrire which alluded to Cocteau's sexuality and drug usage, Marais personally beat up Laubreaux. Cocteau had to personally intervene to prevent reprisals against Marais.
Following the liberation of Paris, Marais enlisted in the Free French Forces and left acting for a time to fight in Alsace, winning the Croix de Guerre.
Marais' first film as leading man was The Eternal Return (1943), a re-telling of Tristan and Isolde set in 1940s France, written by Jean Cocteau. It was directed by Jean Delannoy and co-starred Madeleine Sologne. It was popular and made him a star.
Marais was the male lead in Voyage Without Hope (1943) with Simone Renant directed by Christian-Jaque.
Christian-Jaque also directed Marais in Carmen (1944) with Viviane Romance. This was one of the most popular films in France when it was released.
Beauty and the Beast and Jean Cocteau
Marais became a star in Beauty and the Beast (1946), written and directed by Cocteau.
He performed in a popular revival of Cocteau's 1938 play Les Parents terribles on stage.
Marais' next films were The Royalists (1947), a historical adventure film directed by Henri Calef from a novel by Balzac; and Ruy Blas (1948) with Danielle Darrieux, from a play by Victor Hugo and script by Cocteau, directed by Pierre Billon.
Marais' second film with Cocteau as director was The Eagle with Two Heads (1948) with Edwige Feuillère. He did To the Eyes of Memory (1948) with Michèle Morgan for director Jean Delannoy, a big commercial success, then Les Parents Terribles (1949) for Cocteau again.
Marais was reunited with Delannoy for The Secret of Mayerling (1949), about the Mayerling incident. He did Orpheus (1950) with Cocteau, which was soon regarded as a classic.