Louis Jouvet

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

Louis Jouvet
Louis Jouvet in The School for Wives in 1950
Born
Jules Eugène Louis Jouvet

24 December 1887
Crozon, France
Died16 August 1951 (aged 63)
Paris, France
OccupationActor, Director, Theatre Manager
Spouse(s)Else Collin (1886–1967)
Madeleine Ozeray (? – 1943)
Théâtre de l'Athénée Louis-Jouvet, Paris, named for Jouvet

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".[1]

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.[2] 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,[3] but Jouvet's immediate family tree does not confirm this.

Theatre

Partial filmography

References
  1. Louis Jouvet, man of the theatre, Bettina Liebowitz Knapp
  2. Louis Jouvet at cinememorial.com in French
  3. "Peter Wyngarde - Most Wanted TV Personality". The Age. Melbourne, Australia. 19 February 1970 – via Newspapers.com.
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