Frédérick Lemaître — birth name Antoine Louis Prosper Lemaître — was a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 actor

Actor

An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

 and playwright

Playwright

A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...

, one of the most famous players on the celebrated Boulevard du Crime

Boulevard du Crime

The Boulevard du Crime was the nickname given in the 19th century to the Boulevard du Temple in Paris because of the many crime melodramas that were shown every night in its many theaters. It is notorious in French history for having lost so many theatres during the rebuilding of Paris by Baron...

.

Biography

Lemaître, the son of an architect

Architect

An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

, was born at Le Havre

Le Havre

Le Havre is a city in the Seine-Maritime department of the Haute-Normandie region in France. It is situated in north-western France, on the right bank of the mouth of the river Seine on the English Channel. Le Havre is the most populous commune in the Haute-Normandie region, although the total...

, Seine-Maritime

Seine-Maritime

Seine-Maritime is a French department in the Haute-Normandie region in northern France. It is situated on the northern coast of France, at the mouth of the Seine, and includes the cities of Rouen and Le Havre...

. He adopted the first name "Frédérick" as a stage name

Stage name

A stage name, also called a showbiz name or screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, wrestlers, comedians, and musicians.-Motivation to use a stage name:...

. He spent two years at the Conservatoire de Paris

Conservatoire de Paris

The Conservatoire de Paris is a college of music and dance founded in 1795, now situated in the avenue Jean Jaurès in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, France...

, and made his first appearance at a variety performance in one of the basement restaurants at the Palais Royal

Palais Royal

The Palais-Royal, originally called the Palais-Cardinal, is a palace and an associated garden located in the 1st arrondissement of Paris...

. At the Théâtre de l'Ambigu-Comique

Théâtre de l'Ambigu-Comique

The theatre was rebuilt to plans by the architects Jacques Ignace Hittorff and Jean-François-Joseph Lecointe on the boulevard Saint-Martin, at the corner of rue de Bondy...

 on 12 July 1823 he played the part of Robert Macaire

Robert Macaire

Robert Macaire was a noted criminal and assassin who appears in French plays. His name is renowned in French culture as that of the archetypal villain....

 in L'Auberge des Adrets. The melodrama

Melodrama

The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...

 was played seriously on the first night and was received with little favor, but it was changed on the second night to burlesque

Burlesque

Burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects...

, and thanks to him had a great success. All of Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 came to see it, and from that day he was famous.

He created a number of parts that added to his popularity, especially Cardillac, Cagliostro

Alessandro Cagliostro

Count Alessandro di Cagliostro was the alias of the occultist Giuseppe Balsamo , an Italian adventurer.-Origin:The history of Cagliostro is shrouded in rumour, propaganda and mysticism...

 and Cartouche. His success in the last led to an engagement at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin

Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin

The Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin is a venerable theatre and opera house at 18, Boulevard Saint-Martin in the 10e arrondissement of Paris.- History :...

, where in 1827 he produced Ducange

Victor Henri Joseph Brahain Ducange

Victor Henri-Joseph Brahain du Cange was a French novelist and dramatist, born at the Hague, where his father was secretary to the French embassy....

's Trente ans, ou la vie d'un joueur, in which his vivid acting made a profound impression.

Afterwards at the Odéon

Odéon

The Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe is one of France's six national theatres.It is located at 2 rue Corneille in the 6th arrondissement of Paris on the left bank of the Seine, next to the Luxembourg Garden...

 and other theatres he passed from one success to another. In 1836, at the Théâtre des Variétés

Théâtre des Variétés

The Théâtre des Variétés is a theatre and "salle de spectacles" at 7, boulevard Montmartre, 2nd arrondissement, in Paris. It was declared a monument historique in 1975.-History:...

 he appeared with success as the great, and recently deceased, English actor Edmund Kean

Edmund Kean

Edmund Kean was an English actor, regarded in his time as the greatest ever.-Early life:Kean was born in London. His father was probably Edmund Kean, an architect’s clerk, and his mother was an actress, Anne Carey, daughter of the 18th century composer and playwright Henry Carey...

 in the play Kean by Alexandre Dumas, père

Alexandre Dumas, père

Alexandre Dumas, , born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie was a French writer, best known for his historical novels of high adventure which have made him one of the most widely read French authors in the world...

. He put the final touch to his reputation as an artist by creating the part of Ruy Blas

Ruy Blas

Ruy Blas is a tragic drama by Victor Hugo. It was the first play presented at the Théâtre de la Renaissance and opened on November 8, 1838. Though considered by many to be Hugo’s best drama, the play initially met with only average success....

 in Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo

Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....

's play (1838).

On his return to the Porte St. Martin he created the title-role in Balzac's Vautrin

Vautrin

Vautrin is a character from the novels of French writer Honoré de Balzac in the La Comédie humaine series. His real name is Jacques Collin...

, which was forbidden a second presentation, on account, it is said, of the resemblance of the actor's wig to the well-known toupé worn by Louis Philippe

Louis-Philippe of France

Louis Philippe I was King of the French from 1830 to 1848 in what was known as the July Monarchy. His father was a duke who supported the French Revolution but was nevertheless guillotined. Louis Philippe fled France as a young man and spent 21 years in exile, including considerable time in the...

. His last appearance was at this theatre in 1873 as the old Jew in Marie Tudor.

Frédérick Lemaître died in 1876 in Paris and was buried in the Cimetière de Montmartre in the Montmartre Quarter.

Popular culture references

• Lemaître is one of the principal characters in the famous film Les Enfants du Paradis
  Children of Paradise
  Les Enfants du Paradis, released as Children of Paradise in North America, is a 1945 French film by French director Marcel Carné, made during the German occupation of France during World War II...
  
  (1945).