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Roger Blin

{{Short description|French actor and director (1907–1984)}}

{{More citations needed|date=December 2013}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Roger Blin

| image =

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| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1907|3|22|df=y}}

| birth_place = Neuilly-sur-Seine, France

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1984|1|21|1907|3|22|df=y}}

| death_place = Évecquemont, France

| nationality = French

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| occupation = Film director, Actor

| years_active = 1925–1983

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}}

Roger Blin (22 March 1907 – 21 January 1984) was a French actor and director. He staged world premieres of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot in 1953 and Endgame in 1957.C. J. Ackerley and S. E. Gontarski, The Grove Companion to Samuel Beckett (New York: Grove Press, 2004), 63.

Biography

Blin was the son of a doctor; however, despite his father's wishes, Blin forged a career in the theatre.{{Citation needed|date=May 2021}} As a teenager he was 'fascinated' by the Surrealists and their conception of revolutionary art.{{Cite book|last=Taylor-Batty|first=Mark|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ab0IHd0yU4IC&dq=roger+blin+the+cenci&pg=PA41|title=Roger Blin: Collaborations and Methodologies|date=2007|publisher=Peter Lang|isbn=978-3-03910-502-1|language=en}}:35

He was initially part of the left-wing theatre collectives The Company of Five and The October Group. In 1935 Blin served as Antonin Artaud's assistant director for his production of Les Cenci (The Cenci) at the Folies-Wagrams theatre in 1935.:35 Following his work with Artaud, Blin focused on 'political street-theatre.':46

During the war, Blin was a liaison between the Resistance and the French Army.{{Citation needed|date=May 2021}}

His extensive career as both director and actor in both film and theatre has been largely defined by his work and relationship with Artaud, Samuel Beckett and Jean Genet. In addition to being a close friend and confidant of Artaud during the latter's nine years of internment, he directed the first performances of Beckett's Waiting For Godot, Happy Days and Endgame as well as directing the initial performance of Genet's The Blacks and the controversial The Screens. Genet's key correspondences to Blin have been published by Editions Gallimard.{{Citation needed|date=May 2021}} Samuel Beckett, in a letter to George Duthuit, said that he thought Blin wasn't a great actor nor director, but he had a great love for the theater.{{Cite book |last=Beckett |first=Samuel |title=The Letters of Samuel Beckett |last2=Fehsenfeld |first2=Martha |last3=Overbeck |first3=Lois More |last4=Craig |first4=George |date=2011 |publisher=Cambridge university press |isbn=978-0-521-86794-8 |volume=2 |location=Cambridge |page=182}}

The 1986 Faber and Faber publication, "Samuel Beckett: The Complete Dramatic Works" carries only three dedications from Beckett: "Endgame" is dedicated to Blin, while "Come and Go" is for John Calder, and "Catastrophe" is for Václav Havel.{{Citation needed|date=May 2021}}

Partial filmography

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References

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External links

  • {{IMDb name|0088436}}

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Category:1907 births

Category:1984 deaths

Category:French male film actors

Category:French male stage actors

Category:French film directors

Category:French theatre directors

Category:People from Neuilly-sur-Seine

Category:20th-century French male actors