Roger Blin

Roger Paul Jules Blin (22 March 1907 – 20 January 1984) was a French actor and director. He staged the world premieres of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot in 1953 and Endgame in 1957.

Biography Blin was the son of a doctor; however, despite his father's wishes, Blin forged a career in the theatre. After graduating from the Institution Notre-Dame de Sainte-Croix in Neuilly-sur-Seine he attended the University of Paris, where he received a degree in literature in 1928. :35

Politically, Blin took a left-wing and anti-fascist stance during the 1930s, In the post-war years, he was active within the Internationalist Communist Party. In a letter to Georges Duthuit, Beckett wrote that he thought Blin wasn't a great actor nor director, but that he had a great love for the theater.

Blin was among the signatories of the so-called Manifesto of the 121 in support of the Algerian struggle for independence in 1960, causing him to be banned from the French airwaves and from appearing at state-owned theaters for one year.

The 1986 Faber and Faber publication of Samuel Beckett's Complete Dramatic Works carries only three dedications from Beckett: Endgame is dedicated to Blin, Come and Go to John Calder, and Catastrophe to Václav Havel.

Partial filmography

Street Without a Name (1934) Zouzou (1934) – Le témoin du meurtre (uncredited) The Mutiny of the Elsinore (1936) – Un marin Razumov: Sous les yeux d'occident (1936) – (uncredited) Life Belongs to Us (1936) – Un métallo Jenny (1936) – Le Malade solitaire Beethoven's Great Love (1936) – de Ries The Citadel of Silence (1937) – Un officier La dame de pique (1937) – (uncredited) The Alibi (1937) – Kretz, l'homme de main de Winckler Le temps des cerises (1938) – Le fils Dupuis Rasputin (1938) – Le jeune paysan (uncredited) The Lafarge Case (1938) – Le journalier Adrienne Lecouvreur (1938) – l'alchimiste The Curtain Rises (1938) – Dominique The White Slave (1939) – Maïr Louise (1939) – Un rapin (uncredited) The World Will Tremble (1939) – Le condamné Battement de coeur (1940) Volpone (1941) – Un vénitien (uncredited) L'âge d'or (1942) The Trump Card (1942) – Un aspirant Les Visiteurs du Soir (1942) – Le montreur de monstres Captain Fracasse (1943) – Fagotin / Fagottino Goodbye Leonard (1943) – Le chef bohémien Le Corbeau (1943) – François Love Story (1943) – L'homme du théâtre (uncredited) Colonel Chabert (1943) – Un Clerc First on the Rope (1944) – Paul Moury La vie de bohème (1945) The Last Judgment (1945) The Ideal Couple (1946) – Le somnambule Passionnelle (1947) – Julien Wicked City (1949) – Emilio Histoires extraordinaires (1949) – Guillaume Orpheus (1950) – The Poet Vagabonds imaginaires (1950) – Le récitant (segment 'Les amours jaunes') (voice) The Convict (1951) – Un bagnard Adventures of Captain Fabian (1951) – Philippe The King and the Mockingbird (1952) – L'aveugle (voice) Piédalu Works Miracles (1952) Le Chevalier de la nuit (1953) – Le domestique Your Turn, Callaghan (1955) – Wladimir The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1956) – Mathias Hungadi Checkerboard (1959) – Slim Paris Blues (1961) – Fausto the Moor (uncredited) A Taste for Women (1964) – Larsen Marie Soleil (1964) – Karl / Boss Les ruses du diable (Neuf portraits d'une jeune fille) (1966) – Monsieur de Beaurepaire Le Dimanche de la vie (1967) – Jean Sans-Tête La loi du survivant (1967) – Pao Trop petit mon ami (1970) – Boris Traîté du rossignol (1971) – Lars Larsen Dada au coeur (1974) – Max L'important c'est d'aimer (1975) – Servais's father Aloïse (1975) – Le professeur de chant Lily, aime-moi (1975) – Lily's father Il faut vivre dangereusement (1975) – Murdoc Nevermore, Forever (1976) – Daniel The Old Country Where Rimbaud Died (1977) – Le père de Jeanne Solveig et le violon turc (1977) The Adolescent (1979) – Romain Five and the Skin (1982) – Récitant (voice)