Jean-Marc Barr

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Jean-Marc Barr, born on September 27, 1960 in Bitburg, Germany, is a film actor and director. His mother is French. His American father was in the US Air Force and served in the Second World War. Jean-Marc Barr is primarily known as an actor, but is also a director, screenwriter and producer.

He studied philosophy at the University of California, Los Angeles, the Paris Conservatoire and the Sorbonne. He went on to pursue an education in drama at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. In London he met his future wife, Irina, a pianist.

Jean-Marc Barr began working in theatre in France in 1986. After some television roles and film work, in particular, Hope and Glory (1987) by John Boorman, he was cast in the tremendously successful The Big Blue (1988). Luc Besson cast him in the role of French diver Jacques Mayol. He played in the role opposite Rosanna Arquette and Jean Reno. The Big Blue was the most financially successful film in France in the 1980’s.

In 1991, he starred in Danish Director Lars von Trier’s Europa, marking the beginning of a long friendship (he is the godfather of von Trier’s children) as well as a significant professional relationship. He went on to appear in von Trier’s Breaking the Waves (1996), Dancer in the Dark (2000), Dogville (2004) and Manderlay (2005).

His collaboration with von Trier put him on track to start directing his own work. He debuted in 1999 as a director, screenwriter and producer with the intimate love story Lovers. This film became the first part of a trilogy; the two subsequent parts being the drama Too Much Flesh (2000) and the comedy Being Light (2001) which he co-directed with Pascal Arnold.

He may also be recognized for his role as the attractive divorce lawyer, Maitre Bertram in the Merchant Ivory film le Divorce (2003). He appeared as Hugo in The Red Siren in 2002.