The son of screenwriter and assistant director Pierre Léaud (b. 1905, Rennes, France) and stage and screen actress Jacqueline Pierreux (b. 1922, Roeun, France), he made a memorable film debut as the misunderstood little hero of François Truffaut's The 400 Blows (1959). He subsequently played the same character, Antoine Doinel, in four other Truffaut films that saw him develop from adolescence to maturity as a virtual alter ego of the director, Love at Twenty (1962), Stolen Kisses (1968), Bed and Board (1970), and Love on the Run (1979). He also played in a number of other Truffaut films. A favourite interpreter of the "New Wave," he also played pivotal roles in several Jean-Luc Godard films, including Masculine Feminine (1966), Made in USA (1966), La Chinoise (1967), Weekend (1968), and Le Gai Savoir (1968). He was named best actor at the Berlin Festival for Masculine Feminine. In addition he has worked as an assistant to several directors, including Truffaut and Godard.