Born July 5, 1889, at Maisons Laffitte, Seine et Oise; died Oct. 11, 1963, at Milly-la-Forét, Seine et Oise. French writer and screenwriter. Member of the Académie Fran-çaise (1955).

Cocteau began as a symbolist poet. His output during World War I (1914–18) and the postwar period displayed cubist-futurist and dadaist traits (the collection Poems, 1920). Cocteau’s later poetry developed from the “neoclassicism” of the narrative poem Plain Chant (1923) to the surrealism of the collection Opera (1927). His best-known novels include Thomas the Impostor (1923; Russian translation, 1925) and Les Enfants terribles (1929). Cocteau adapted classical and Shakespearean tragedies in an attempt to update them. His other plays include the psychological monodrama The Human Voice (1930; Russian translation, 1971) and Intimate Relations (1938). In the 1930’s, Cocteau became a screenwriter and director (the films Orphée, 1950; Blood of a Poet; and Le Testament d’Orphée, 1960).