Jean Marais and Louis de Funès in Fantomas contre Scotland Yard (1967)

French postcard by Chromos, no. 37. Jean Marais and Louis de Funès in Fantomas contre Scotland Yard / Fantomas Contra Scotland Yard (André Hunebelle, 1967).

With his heroic physique, Jean Marais (1913-1998) was France’s answer to Errol Flynn, the epitome of the swashbuckling romantic hero of French cinema. The blonde and incredibly good-looking actor played over 100 roles in film and on television and was also known as a director, writer, painter and sculptor. His mentor was the legendary poet and director Jean Cocteau, also his lover.

Jean-Alfred Villain-Marais was born in 1913 in Cherbourg, France. He endured a turbulent childhood. When he was born, on the eve of World War I, his mother refused to see him. Her only daughter had died a few days before. When Marais's father returned from the war, the five-year-old Jean didn't remember him, and his father slapped him. His mother promptly packed her three children off to their grandmother's, and Jean grew up fatherless. He attended the Lycee Condorcet, a prestigious private school, where some of his future film partners also studied, such as Louis de Funes and Jean Cocteau, and the faculty had such figures as Jean-Paul Sartre. At 13, Marais had to leave the Lycee Condorcet after gamingly flirting in drag with a teacher. He was placed in a Catholic boarding school, but at 16, he left school and became involved in amateur acting. As a child, he dreamed of becoming an actor but was rejected twice when he applied to drama schools. He worked as a photographer's assistant and had acting classes with Charles Dullin. In 1933, Marcel L'Herbier gave him a bit part in L’Épervier/The Casting Net (1933) starring Charles Boyer. This was followed by more small parts in films by L’Herbier, in L'Aventurier/The Adventurer (1934), Le Bonheur/Happiness (1935), Les Hommes nouveaux/The New Men (1936), and Nuits de feu/The Living Corpse (1936). Marais also appeared in Abus de confiance/Abused Confidence (Henri Decoin, 1937), and Drôle de drame/Bizarre, Bizarre (Marcel Carné, 1937).

In 1937, then-24-year-old Jean Marais met Jean Cocteau at a stage rehearsal of 'Oedipe-Roi' (King Oedipus). They fell in love and would remain close friends until Cocteau died in 1963. Cocteau became his surrogate father, and he was Cocteau's surrogate son. Cocteau had a major influence on Marais’ career. In 1938, he cast him as Galahad in the stage play 'Les Chevaliers de La Table Ronde' (The Knights of the Round Table) and wrote the film L'Éternel retour with him in mind. With L’Éternal retour/The Eternal Return (Jean Delannoy, 1943), Marais made his big break in the cinema. This was the turning point in his life and the start of a film career spanning nearly sixty years. In the following years, he appeared in almost every one of Cocteau's films: La Belle et la bête/Beauty and the Beast (Jean Cocteau, Jean Delannoy, 1946), L'Aigle à deux têtes/The Eagle Has Two Heads (Jean Cocteau, 1947), Les Parents terribles/The Storm Within (Jean Cocteau, 1948), and Orphée/Orpheus (Jean Cocteau, 1950). After the Allies liberated Paris in August 1944, he joined France's Second Armored Division and served as a truck driver, carrying fuel and ammunition to the front. Later, he was decorated with the Croix de Guerre for his courage. During the war, Marais was engaged to his film partner, actress Mila Parély, and their engagement was blessed by Cocteau, who wanted Marais to be happy. Marais and Mila Parély separated after two years, and shortly after, they worked together again in La Belle et la bête/Beauty and the Beast (1946). His double role as the beast and the prince in this classic film made Marais an international teen idol.

During the 1950s, Jean Marais became a dashing sword master, dazzling his audiences with impressive French swashbuckling adventures in which he performed his own stunts. Le Comte de Monte Cristo/The Count of Monte Cristo (Robert Vernay, 1955), Le Bossu/The Hunchback of Paris (André Hunebelle, 1959), and Le Capitaine Fracasse/Captain Fracasse (Pierre Gaspard-Huit, 1961) all enjoyed great box office popularity in France. Marais would become one of the most admired and celebrated actors of his generation and star in international productions directed by Jean Renoir (Elena et les hommes/Elena and Her Men, 1956), Luchino Visconti (Le Notti bianche/White Nights, 1957), Cocteau (Le testament d'Orphée/The Testament of Orpheus, 1959), and others. During the 1960s and 1970s, he went on to appear in such popular adventure comedies as the Fantômas (André Hunebelle, 1964-1967) trilogy, co-starring with Louis de Funes and Mylène Demongeot.

Jean Marais was equally impressive in the theatre, appearing in such plays as 'Britannicus,' 'Pygmalion' and 'Cher Menteur' at the Théâtre de Paris, Théâtre de l'Atelier, and the Comédie Francaise. He spent his later years living in his house in Vallauris, in the South of France, where he was involved in painting, sculpture and pottery, and was visited by Pablo Picasso and other cultural figures. His monument, Le passe muraille/The Walker Through Walls, honouring French author Marcel Aymé, can be seen in the Montmartre Quarter in Paris. After a long retirement, Jean Marais returned to filmmaking in the mid-1980s with choice character roles in such films as Parking (Jacques Demy, 1985). In 1993, he was awarded an honourable César. Marais made his final film appearance in Bernardo Bertolucci's Io ballo da sola/Stealing Beauty (1996), starring Liv Tyler. That year, he received France's highest tribute, the Legion of Honour, for his contribution to French cinema. Jean Marais died of heart failure in 1998 in Cannes. He had an adopted son, Serge Marais.

Sources: Steve Shelokhonov (IMDb), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Wikipedia, French Films, Lenin Imports, and IMDb.

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Taken on: March 19, 2025

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