Madeleine Renaud

French actress, comedienne and theater director, a leading actress of French stage and screen who married Jean-Louis Barrault. They formed their own company in 1946, becoming one of France's most enduring and prominent stage couples. Her film credits include, "Jean de la Lune," Children of Montmarte," "Maria Chapdelaine" and "La Mandarine."

After an artistic education at the Conservatory for the Performing Arts, Renaud's performance in Moliere's "School for Wives" earned her the Conservatory's highest honor and she joined the renowned Comedie Francais at age 21. As a leading lady there for 24 years, she performed the French classic repertory of playwrights Racine, Corneille, Musset and Marivaux.

She married fellow French actor Jean-Louis Barrault, ten years her junior, on 5 September 1940. Seven years later they founded the popular Theatre de Marigny on the Champs de Elysees, which played to audiences packed with artists, intellectuals and celebrities. In 1957 the renowned Renaud-Barrault troupe moved to the Theatre de l'Odeon, where they staged works by contemporary, avant-garde playwrights such as Jean Anouilh, Eugene Ionesco and Samuel Beckett.

Despite Renaud's height of barely five feet, her stage presence was commanding and she is capable of adapting her versatile talent to comedy, tragedy and vaudeville.

Barrault died of heart failure on 22 January 1994, 7:30 AM, at his home in Paris and, after 53 years marriage, In poor health, she followed him within the year, on 23 September 1994, Paris.