Jean Marais

Jean Marais grew up with his mother in Cherbourg and Paris and tried his luck as an actor in his early twenties. In 1937 he auditioned for Jean Cocteau, who was 24 years older. The two fell in love, and Cocteau wrote roles for him in his plays and films.

During the German occupation Marais famously punched a collaborationist critic who had attacked Cocteau. After the war he became one of France’s biggest film stars: as the Beast and the Prince in Cocteau’s “Beauty and the Beast” (1946), in “Orpheus” (1950), and later as the hero of countless adventure films and as Fantômas.

Their romantic relationship ended after about ten years, but Marais and Cocteau remained close until Cocteau’s death in 1963. Marais later had other relationships with men and adopted a son. In his memoirs in 1975 he wrote openly about his life with Cocteau.

In later years he worked as a painter, sculptor and potter, and took care of Cocteau’s legacy. His statue “Le Passe-Muraille”, a man walking through a wall, can be seen in Montmartre. He died in Cannes in 1998, aged 84.