Madeleine Renaud

Lucie Madeleine Renaud was born on 21 February 1900 in Paris, France, and went on to become one of the most distinguished French actresses of the twentieth century, with a career spanning theatre, film, and international performance. She died on 23 September 1994.

Renaud's stage career brought her to Broadway on multiple occasions between 1952 and 1976. Her Broadway credits include Des Journées Entières Dans les Arbres, Feu la Mere de Madame, the play Christophe Colomb, Les Adieux, and the comedy The Misanthrope. Her Broadway work earned her the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance in 1971.

Alongside her stage career, Renaud appeared in a substantial number of films across several decades. Her screen work began in the silent era with Vent debout in 1923 and The Dying Land in 1927, in which she played Roussille Lumineau. She continued working in French cinema through the 1930s, taking roles in films including Jean de la Lune, La Maternelle, Maria Chapdelaine, and Primerose. Director Jean Grémillon cast her in two notable productions: Remorques, known in English as Stormy Waters, in 1941, and Lumière d'été, released as Summer Light, in 1943. Her later film appearances included Le Plaisir in 1952, Dialogue of the Carmelites in 1960, and The Longest Day in 1962, in which she played a Mother Superior.

In her personal life, Renaud had a son, Jean-Pierre Granval, born 10 December 1923, from her first marriage to Charles Granval. Jean-Pierre Granval died on 28 May 1998. In 1940, she married actor and director Jean-Louis Barrault, born in 1910. Together, the two performed on stage, co-founded several theatre companies, and undertook extensive touring throughout North and South America.