Jean Cocteau

Jean Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, filmmaker, and artist who was one of the great polymaths of 20th-century modernism. His films include The Blood of a Poet (1930), Beauty and the Beast (1946), and Orpheus (1950). From 1937 to 1947 he was in a passionate relationship with actor Jean Marais, whom he cast as the lead in several of his key works, including The Eternal Return (1943), Beauty and the Beast, and Orpheus; the relationship was well understood within his Parisian circle, if not the subject of press disclosure, and the two remained close friends and collaborators after it ended. He was elected to the Académie française in 1955. His circle included Picasso, Stravinsky, and Coco Chanel, and his sexual identity was woven through his artistic vision without being its explicit subject.