About

Known credits:
45
Birthday:
1910-06-23
Place of birth:
Bordeaux, Gironde, France
Website:
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Jean Anouilh

Overview

Jean Marie Lucien Pierre Anouilh (23 June 1910 – 3 October 1987) was a French dramatist whose career spanned five decades. Though his work ranged from high drama to absurdist farce, Anouilh is best known for his 1944 play Antigone, an adaptation of Sophocles' classical drama, that was seen as an attack on Marshal Pétain's Vichy government. His plays are less experimental than those of his contemporaries, having clearly organized plot and eloquent dialogue. One of France's most prolific writers after World War II, much of Anouilh's work deals with themes of maintaining integrity in a world of moral compromise.

Anouilh was born in Cérisole, a small village on the outskirts of Bordeaux, and had Basque ancestry. His father, François Anouilh, was a tailor, and Anouilh maintained that he inherited from him a pride in conscientious craftmanship. He may owe his artistic bent to his mother, Marie-Magdeleine, a violinist who supplemented the family's meager income by playing summer seasons in the casino orchestra in the nearby seaside resort of Arcachon. Marie-Magdeleine worked the night shifts in the music-hall orchestras and sometimes accompanied stage presentations, affording Anouilh ample opportunity to absorb the dramatic performances from backstage. He often attended rehearsals and solicited the resident authors to let him read scripts until bedtime. He first tried his hand at playwriting here, at the age of 12, though his earliest works do not survive.

In 1918 the family moved to Paris where the young Anouilh received his secondary education at the Lycée Chaptal. Jean-Louis Barrault, later a major French director, was a pupil there at the same time and recalls Anouilh as an intense, rather dandified figure who hardly noticed a boy some two years younger than himself. He earned acceptance into the law school at the Sorbonne but, unable to support himself financially, he left after just 18 months to seek work as a copywriter at the advertising agency Publicité Damour. He liked the work, and spoke more than once with wry approval of the lessons in the classical virtues of brevity and precision of language he learned while drafting advertising copy. ...

Source: Article "Jean Anouilh" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Known for

Acting
1933 Le Colisée Actor The cap art lover 59
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Directing
1951 Two Pennies Worth of Violets Directing Director 58
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1944 The Traveler Without Luggage Directing Director 59
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Writing
2012 You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet Writing Theatre Play 59
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2008 On m'a volé mon adolescence Writing Writer N/A
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2004 Le voyageur sans bagage Writing Book 59
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2003 Antigone Writing Writer 59
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1986 La répétition ou L'amour puni Writing Author 59
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1981 Il est important d'être aimé Writing Writer N/A
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1979 The Savage Writing Original Story 58
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1979 The Savage Writing Writer 58
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1978 Histoire du Chevalier Des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut Writing Scenario Writer N/A
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1978 Histoire du Chevalier Des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut Writing Dialogue N/A
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1974 Antigone Writing Writer N/A
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1973 La Nuit des rois Writing Writer N/A
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1972 Appuntamento a Senlis Writing Writer N/A
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1972 A Time for Loving Writing Writer 58
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1972 Orchester Writing Theatre Play N/A
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1968 Romeo a Jana Writing Theatre Play N/A
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1968 Repetitionen Writing Writer N/A
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1966 Kruté štěstí Writing Theatre Play N/A
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1965 A Trap for Cinderella Writing Screenplay 59
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1964 Circle of Love Writing Screenplay 59
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1964 Becket Writing Theatre Play 62
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1964 Valčík toreadorů Writing Theatre Play N/A
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1962 Waltz of the Toreadors Writing Theatre Play 58
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1961 Madame de… Writing Screenplay N/A
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1961 The Passion of Slow Fire Writing Writer 59
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1957 Eurydice Writing Writer N/A
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1957 The Lark Writing Writer N/A
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1953 The Knight of the Night Writing Writer 58
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1952 Crimson Curtain Writing Dialogue 59
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1952 Monsoon Writing Theatre Play 58
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1951 Two Pennies Worth of Violets Writing Dialogue 58
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1951 Dear Caroline Writing Writer 59
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1949 White Paws Writing Scenario Writer 58
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1948 Anna Karenina Writing Writer 59
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1947 Monsieur Vincent Writing Writer 59
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1945 The Bride of Darkness Writing Screenplay 59
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1944 The Traveler Without Luggage Writing Writer 59
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1943 Marie-Martine Writing Screenplay 59
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1939 Cavalcade of Love Writing Screenplay 58
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1939 The Mayor's Dilemma Writing Dialogue 59
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1937 The Citadel of Silence Writing Dialogue N/A
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1937 Confessions of a Newlywed Writing Screenplay 58
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