The French poet, librettist, novelist, actor, director, and painter Jean Cocteau was born in Maisons-Laffitte, near Paris, in 1889, and died in Milly-la-Forêt in 1963.
Some of his most important works include the poem L’Ange Heurtebise (1925), the play Orpheus (1926), the novels The Terrible Children and The Infernal Machine (1934), as well as his surrealist films The Blood of a Poet (1930) and Beauty and the Beast (1946).
He was awarded the highest and most prestigious honors: in 1955 he became a member of the Royal Academy of French Language and Literature of Belgium and a member of the French Academy.
Cocteau was described as the most versatile artist of the 20th century. However, due to his eccentric behavior and some of his more difficult and obscure works, his artistic value was continually questioned and reassessed throughout his lifetime.
