Biography

Jean Le Poulain (12 September 1924 – 1 March 1988) was a French stage actor and stage director. He attended the cours Simon in Paris and won the first prize of Comedy at the Conservatoire national supérieur d'art dramatique in 1949. He was then recruited by Jean Vilar at the Théâtre national populaire and in 1952 he appeared with Gérard Philipe in The Prince of Homburg by Heinrich von Kleist at the théâtre des Champs-Élysées. He began as an actor both in theatre and cinema in 1947 and often appeared on the regular theatre show of the French television Au théâtre ce soir created in 1966. He joined the Comédie-Française in 1978, where he became sociétaire in 1980, then General administrator from septembre 1986 until his death, where he portrayed Monsieur Jourdain in Le Bourgeois gentilhomme by Molière.