Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (French: [ʒɑ̃ kɔkto]; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French writer, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker. Cocteau is best known for his novel Les Enfants Terribles (1929), and the films Blood of a Poet (1930), Les Parents Terribles (1948), Beauty and the Beast (1946) and Orpheus (1949). His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Kenneth Anger, Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Yul Brynner, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie, Igor Stravinsky, María Félix, Édith Piaf, Panama Al Brown, Colette and Raymond Radiguet.
BAFTA Award for Best Film, Tony Award for Best Play
Movies
Beauty and the Beast, Orpheus, The Blood of a Poet
Star Sign
Cancer
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Trademark
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Almost always cast his protege and lover, 'Jean Marais'.
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Rich, poetic films filled with symbolism
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Quote
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In Paris, everybody wants to be an actor; nobody is content to be a spectator.
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[on being accused by fellow-Frenchmen of fraternizing with Nazi officials during the WWII occupation] Why should the destiny of a poet change? My realm is not of this world. and the world resents me for not following the rules. I will always suffer the same injustice.
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What's a Frenchman? An Italian in a bad mood.
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[on Orson Welles] An active loafer, a wise madman.
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[on Marlene Dietrich] In your voice we hear the voice of Lorelei; in your look, the Lorelei turns to us. But the Lorelei was a danger to be feared. You are not, because the secret of your beauty lies in the care of your loving kindness of the heart. This care of the heart is what holds you higher than elegance, fashion or style; higher even than your fame, your courage, your bearing, your films, your songs.
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[on the cast of "Les Parents Terribles"] If I keep Jean Marais for last, it's because his performance escapes analysis. Not only is it prodigious: he played what he used to execute, instinctively, and tripled his effects by a fusion of passion and style.
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A film is a petrified fountain of thought.
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[on cinema] That temple of sex, with its goddesses, its guardians and its victims.
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History consists of truths which in the end turn into lies, while myth consists of lies which finally turn into truths.
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I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul.
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Film will only become an art when its materials are as inexpensive as pencil and paper.
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Fact
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When Jean Cocteauwas asked who had the greatest influence on him, he replied, "Harry Langdon.".
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He was an Ambulance Driver during the First World War.
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President of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1953.
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President of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1954.
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Honorary president of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1957.
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Was posthumously nominated for Broadway's 1995 Tony Award as author of Best Play nominee "Indiscretions."
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Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890-1945." Pages 144-147. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.
$6 Million
