Jean-Pierre Léaud (born May 5, 1944 in Paris) became a star at the age of fourteen playing Antoine Doinel in Francois Truffaut’s acclaimed story of a troubled teenager, Les quatre cents coups (The 400 Blows, 1959). In the 1960s and early 70s, he became the quintessential New Wave actor, working with Truffaut on four more films in the “Doinel” series, as well as staring in Les deux anglaises et le continent (Two English Girls, 1971) and La nuit américaine (Day for Night, 1973).

Leaud also worked on films by Jean-Luc Godard (Masculin-Féminin, La Chinoise, Le gai savoir), Philippe Garrel (Le concentration), Luc Moullet (Une aventure de Billy le Kid, 1971), Jacques Rivette (Out 1) and Jean Eustache (La maman et la putain), as well as international New Wave directors like Jerzy Skolimowsky, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Glauber Rocha.