Robert Manuel was a long-time member of The Comédie-Française. He got his first part on stage in 1933 in Gabriel Pierné's "Fragonard" at the early age of eighteen, which allowed him to celebrate - as of October 1983 - the fiftieth anniversary of his debut. At the time he was playing Liberio Bocca,a fanciful old man, in Aldo Nicolai's "Le Soleil n'est plus aussi chaud qu'avant", later filmed for television. Among his numerous other plays are: "Hello Dolly", "Barnum", "Ceux qui font les Clowns"... Robert Manuel was also the owner of a restaurant on Quai Kennedy named "Wall Street".