Renaud, Madeleine-Lucie

Renaud, Madeleine-Lucie (1900–94), French actress, who in 1923 made her début at the Comédie-Française and soon became known as an outstanding interpreter of classical comedy, particularly in the plays of Molière and Marivaux. In 1940 she married as her second husband J.-L. Barrault, who had just joined the company, and appeared in several of his productions, including in 1943 Claudel's Le Soulier de satin. In 1946 they left the Comédie-Française to establish the Compagnie Renaud–Barrault, for which she performed a wide range of parts, adding to her former repertory plays by Lope de Vega, Chekhov, and Feydeau, as well as such later authors as Anouilh, Salacrou, Fry, and Beckett, in whose Oh! les beaux jours she was seen in London in 1965. She starred in several of Marguerite Duras's plays, including Des journées entières dans les arbres (1965), L'Éden cinéma (1977), and Savannah Bay (1983). In 1973 she appeared as Maude in Colin Higgins's Harold and Maude, and in 1979 in Kopit's Wings. The beauty of her voice and person and above all her fine, mature intelligence made her outstanding.