Jacques Tati (born Jacques Tatischeff) was a French director and actor. Despite a very small output—only six feature films and three shorts—he is considered one of the most influential comedy directors of the twentieth century. He is best known for creating the character of Monsieur Hulot—a slightly anachronistic, bumbling gentleman—whom he played in four films: Les Vacances de M. Hulot (M. Hulot’s Holiday, 1953), Mon Oncle (My Uncle, 1958), Play Time (1967), and Trafic (Traffic, 1971). Tati had a complex Russian, Dutch, French, and Italian ancestry (his paternal grandfather was a general in the Russian Imperial Army and came from nobility) and grew up under relatively affluent circumstances.