Michel Baron 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...

. His family name was originally Boyron. His father and mother were leading players. He was born in 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...

. He was orphaned at age 9, and joined the child company Petits Comédiens Dauphins at age 12, becoming its brightest star. He came to the notice of Molière

Molière

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature...

, joined his troupe, and eventually became his protégé. He left the troupe after a conflict with Molière's wife, Armande Béjart

Armande Béjart

Armande-Grésinde-Claire-Élisabeth Béjart , was a French actress, one of the most famous French stage actors of the 17th-century. She belonged to the Béjart family, a famous theatre family in 17th-century France, and daughter of Madeleine Béjart. She was married to Molière in 1662...

, but rejoined in 1670. He played the role of Domitien

Domitian

Domitian was Roman Emperor from 81 to 96. Domitian was the third and last emperor of the Flavian dynasty.Domitian's youth and early career were largely spent in the shadow of his brother Titus, who gained military renown during the First Jewish-Roman War...

 in Pierre Corneille

Pierre Corneille

Pierre Corneille was a French tragedian who was one of the three great seventeenth-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine...

's Tite et Bérénice

Tite et Bérénice

Tite et Bérénice is a tragedy by the 17th-century French playwright Pierre Corneille.It was first performed in 1670, the same year as the more famous tragedy on the same theme written by Corneille's rival Jean Racine, Bérénice....

and played in Corneille

Pierre Corneille

Pierre Corneille was a French tragedian who was one of the three great seventeenth-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine...

's Psyché

Psyché (play)

Psyché is a Tragédie et ballet of 1671, composed by Molière and versified in collaboration with Pierre Corneille and Philippe Quinault with musical intermèdes by Jean-Baptiste Lully.-History:...

. He stayed with the troupe until Molière's death in 1673, when he joined the troupe at the Hotel de Bourgogne

Hôtel de Bourgogne

Until the 16th century, the Hôtel de Bourgogne was the name of the Paris residence of the Dukes of Burgundy. Today, the last vestige is the Tour Jean sans Peur, 20 rue Étienne Marcel, in the 2nd arrondissement.-Theatre:...

. This troupe merged with another in 1680 to become the Comédie-Française

Comédie-Française

The Comédie-Française or Théâtre-Français is one of the few state theaters in France. It is the only state theater to have its own troupe of actors. It is located in the 1st arrondissement of Paris....

.

With Comédie-Française, Baron was the undisputed master of the French stage until his retirement in 1691. He created many of the leading roles in Racine

Jean Racine

Jean Racine , baptismal name Jean-Baptiste Racine , was a French dramatist, one of the "Big Three" of 17th-century France , and one of the most important literary figures in the Western tradition...

's plays, and in his own L'Homme à bonnes fortunes (1686), his most popular play, and La Coquette. He also wrote Les Enlèvements and Le Debauche, and translated and acted in two plays by Terence

Terence

Publius Terentius Afer , better known in English as Terence, was a playwright of the Roman Republic, of North African descent. His comedies were performed for the first time around 170–160 BC. Terentius Lucanus, a Roman senator, brought Terence to Rome as a slave, educated him and later on,...

.

After retiring in 1691, Baron re-appeared in 1720 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...

, and was very active. During his last years on stage, he regularly performed with Adrienne Lecouvreur. He died on December 22, 1729.

Barons's son Étienne Michel Baron (1676–1711) was also an actor. Etienne's son and two daughters all acted with the Comédie-Française

Comédie-Française

The Comédie-Française or Théâtre-Français is one of the few state theaters in France. It is the only state theater to have its own troupe of actors. It is located in the 1st arrondissement of Paris....

.

External links

• • The Lucky Man by Michel Baron at Project Gutenberg
    Project Gutenberg
    Project Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...
    
     - a translation of L'homme à bonne fortune