Marcel Achard

French playwright, screenwriter, and actor. born Marcel-Auguste Ferréol in Sainte-Foylès-Lyon (Rhône) on July 5, 1899. The circumstances of his birth are both uncertain and unusual. At one point, Achard stated as fact that ""I was born thanks to a special authorization from the Pope and the President of the Republic: my father had married the daughter of his sister, so that my grandfather was, at the same time, my great-grandfather; my father, my great-uncle; and my mother, my cousin." As a teenager during the First World War, he became a schoolteacher. By 20, he was a prompter at the famous Parisian Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier and then a journalist for La Figaro. He began writing for the stage at 22 and had immediate success when theatrical manager Charles Dullin staged Achard's Voulez-vous jouer avec moâ? at the Atelier. Achard quickly became a very popular playwright, most of his works derived from traditions of the Commedia del'Arte. Although frequently criticized for the dreamy, ro