Truffaut, François (1932–1984)

French New Wave film director and actor. A romantic and intensely humane film-maker, he wrote and directed a series of semi-autobiographical films starring Jean-Pierre Léaud, beginning with Les Quatre Cent Coups/The 400 Blows (1959). His other films include Jules et Jim (1961), Fahrenheit 451 (1966), L'Enfant sauvage/The Wild Child (1970), and La Nuit américaine/Day for Night (1973; Academy Award).

Truffaut's passion for cinema led to a job as film critic for Cahiers du cinéma during the 1950s before he embarked on his career as director. His later work includes The Story of Adèle H (1975) and Le Dernier Métro/The Last Metro (1980). He played one of the leading roles in Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977).

He was influenced by Alfred Hitchcock, and also drew on surrealist and comic traditions.