At the time, Barrault was unable to afford rent and Dullin allowed him to sleep in the theatre on Volpone's bed.

[3]:16 It was L'Atelier that he first met and studied under Étienne Decroux,[4]:41 with whom he would create the pantomime La Vie Primitive in 1931.

[1]:87 He was a member of the Comédie-Française from 1942 to 1946, performing lead roles in Shakespeare's Hamlet and Corneille's Le Cid.

[2]:32 He and his wife, actress Madeleine Renaud, formed their own troupe, Compagnie Renaud-Barrault, in 1946 at Paris' Théâtre Marigny.

One of his most famous performances was in Marcel Carné's film Les Enfants du Paradis (1945), in which he played the mime Jean-Gaspard Deburau.