WRITER

Jean Cocteau

1889 - 1963

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Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (UK: KOK-toh, US: kok-TOH; French: [ʒɑ̃ mɔʁis øʒɛn klemɑ̃ kɔkto]; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, film director, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost artists of the surrealist, avant-garde, and Dadaist movements and an influential figure in early 20th-century art. The National Observer suggested that, "of the artistic generation whose daring gave birth to Twentieth Century Art, Cocteau came closest to being a Renaissance man." He is best known for his novels Le Grand Écart (1923), Le Livre blanc (1928), and Les Enfants Terribles (1929); the stage plays La Voix Humaine (1930), La Machine Infernale (1934), Les Parents terribles (1938), La Machine à écrire (1941), and L'Aigle à deux têtes (1946); and the films The Blood of a Poet (1930), Les Parents Terribles (1948), Beauty and the Beast (1946), Orpheus (1950), and Testament of Orpheus (1960), which alongside Blood of a Poet and Orpheus constitute the so-called Orphic Trilogy. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Jean Cocteau has received more than 2,618,697 page views. His biography is available in 85 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 83 in 2019). Jean Cocteau is the 118th most popular writer (up from 124th in 2019), the 121st most popular biography from France (up from 138th in 2019) and the 27th most popular French Writer.

Jean Cocteau is most famous for his work in the film industry, specifically his work on the film "Beauty and the Beast."

Memorability Metrics

  • 2.6M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 76.19

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 85

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 10.11

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.47

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among WRITERS

Among writers, Jean Cocteau ranks 118 out of 7,302Before him are Jean de La Fontaine, George Bernard Shaw, E. T. A. Hoffmann, Sully Prudhomme, Federico García Lorca, and Anatole France. After him are Guy de Maupassant, Charles Bukowski, Ivo Andrić, Charlotte Brontë, Lewis Carroll, and Ahmad ibn Hanbal.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1889, Jean Cocteau ranks 7Before him are Adolf Hitler, Charlie Chaplin, Martin Heidegger, Ludwig Wittgenstein, António de Oliveira Salazar, and Jawaharlal Nehru. After him are Edwin Hubble, Paul Karrer, Ante Pavelić, Anna Akhmatova, Arnold J. Toynbee, and Vaslav Nijinsky. Among people deceased in 1963, Jean Cocteau ranks 6Before him are John F. Kennedy, Édith Piaf, Lee Harvey Oswald, Pope John XXIII, and Robert Frost. After him are Georges Braque, Aldous Huxley, Robert Schuman, Ngo Dinh Diem, Tristan Tzara, and C. S. Lewis.

Others Born in 1889

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Others Deceased in 1963

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In France

Among people born in France, Jean Cocteau ranks 121 out of 6,770Before him are Marie Thérèse of France (1778), Charles VII of France (1403), Sully Prudhomme (1839), Charles VIII of France (1470), Roman Polanski (1933), and Anatole France (1844). After him are Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor (1708), Guy de Maupassant (1850), Hugh Capet (940), Charles VI of France (1368), Thérèse of Lisieux (1873), and Louis XII of France (1462).

Among WRITERS In France

Among writers born in France, Jean Cocteau ranks 27Before him are George Sand (1804), Marquis de Sade (1740), André Gide (1869), Jean de La Fontaine (1621), Sully Prudhomme (1839), and Anatole France (1844). After him are Guy de Maupassant (1850), Paul Verlaine (1844), François Villon (1431), Alexandre Dumas fils (1824), Petronius (27), and Jean Racine (1639).