Auditioned for the Conservatoire National Superieur d'Art Dramatique in his early years and was rejected three times.
Dedicated his life to the theatre and took on film roles solely for the purpose of financing his theatre company.
Father of actress Lisa Jouvet.
Had a stammering and diction problem as a youth.
In 1936 he became teacher of acting technique and theatrical history at the Conservatoire de Paris but he did not like that work and had probably had to accept it unwillingly. Very often he arrived late to lessons and compared his watch with a grandfather clock that was in the classroom. One day he explicated his habit to the students telling them: "It's always amazing for me to see something going ahead in this institution that is still since a century"
In 1941, having experienced serious problems with the censorship of the German occupier, he took his repertory company on international tours. He was not to return to France until the war was over.
Uncle of Peter Wyngarde.