Louis Jouvet

Louis Jouvet
Louis Jouvet in The School for Wives in 1950
Born	Jules Eugène Louis Jouvet (1887-12-24)December 24, 1887 Crozon, France
Died	August 16, 1951(1951-08-16) (aged 63) Paris, France
Occupation	Actor, Director, Theatre Manager
Spouse(s)	Else Collin (1886–1967) Madeleine Ozeray (? – 1943)

Théâtre de l'Athénée Louis-Jouvet, Paris, named for Jouvet

Jules Eugène Louis Jouvet (24 December 1887 – 16 August 1951) was a French actor, director, and theatre director.

Life

Overcoming speech impediments and sometimes paralyzing stage fright as a young man, Jouvet's first important association was with Jacques Copeau's Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier, beginning in 1913. Copeau's training included a varied and demanding schedule, regular exercise for agility and stamina, and pressing his cast and crew to invent theatrical effects in a bare-bones space. It was there Jouvet developed his considerable stagecraft skills, particularly makeup and lighting (he developed a kind of accent light named the jouvet). These years included a successful tour to the United States.

While influential, Copeau's theater was never lucrative. Jouvet left in October 1922 for the Comédie des Champs-Élysées (the small stage of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées). In December 1923 he staged his single most successful production, the satire Dr. Knock, written by Jules Romains. His characterization of the manipulative crank doctor was informed by his own experience in pharmacy school. It became his signature and his standby; "Jouvet was to produce it almost every year until the end of his life".

Jouvet began an ongoing close collaboration with playwright Jean Giraudoux in 1928, with a radical streamlining of Giraudoux's 1922 Siegfried et le Limousin for the stage. Their work together included the first staging of The Madwoman of Chaillot in 1945, at the Théâtre de l'Athénée, where Jouvet served as director from 1934 through his death in 1951.

Jouvet starred in some 34 films, including two recordings of Dr. Knock, once in 1933 and again in 1951. He was professor at the French National Academy of Dramatic Arts. He had a heart attack while at his beloved Théâtre de l'Athénée and died in his dressing room on 16 August 1951. Jouvet is buried in the Montmartre Cemetery in Paris. The Athénée theatre now bears his name.

Pixar paid homage to Jouvet by basing the appearance of the character Anton Ego in Ratatouille (2007) on him.

Relatives

French-Argentine actor Maurice Jouvet (1923–1999) was his nephew.

British actor Peter Wyngarde said that Jouvet was his maternal uncle, but Jouvet's immediate family tree does not confirm this.

Theatre

• 1931: original production of Judith, written by Jean Giraudoux, at the Théâtre Pigalle
• 1935: original production of The Trojan War Will Not Take Place, written by Jean Giraudoux, starring Jouvet as Homer, also starring Madeleine Ozeray, at the Athénée in Paris
• 1947: directed the première of Jean Genet's The Maids at the Athénée in Paris on 17 April.
• 1951: directed the première of Jean-Paul Sartre's The Devil and the Good Lord at the Théâtre-Antoine in Paris on 7 June.

Filmography

• Topaze (1933)
• La Kermesse Heroique [Carnival in Flanders] (1935)
• Les Bas Fonds [The Lower Depths] (1936)
• Compliments of Mister Flow (1936)
• Life Dances On (1937)
• Drole de Drame (1937)
• Topaze (1937)
• The Cheat (1937)
• The Alibi (1937)
• The Curtain Rises (1938)
• Bargekeepers Daughter (1938)
• Le drame de Shanghaï (1938)
• Hôtel du Nord (1938)
• Ramuntcho (1938)
• La Fin du jour (1939)
• The Phantom Wagon (1939)
• L'école des femmes (1940)
• Serenade (1940)
• Volpone (1941)
• Immortal France (1943)
• Un revenant (1946)
• Copie conforme (1947)
• Quai des Orfèvres (1947)
• Monelle (1948)
• Between Eleven and Midnight (1949)
• Return to Life (1949)
• Miquette (1950)
• Lady Paname (1950)
• Dr. Knock (1951)
• Une histoire d'amour (1951)

External links

• Louis Jouvet at the Internet Movie Database
• Louis Jouvet at the Internet Broadway Database
• Louis Jouvet at Find a Grave
• Full text of English-language Jouvet biography online