Étienne Marin Mélingue 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 sculptor

Sculpture

Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...

.

He was born in Caen

Caen

Caen is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the Calvados department and the capital of the Basse-Normandie region. It is located inland from the English Channel....

, the son of a volunteer of 1792, He early went to 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...

 and obtained work as a sculptor on the church of the Madeleine, but his passion for the stage soon led him to join a strolling company of comedian

Comedian

A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...

s. Finally chance gave him an opportunity to show his talents, and at the Porte Saint Martin he became the popular interpreter of romantic drama of the 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...

 type.

One of his greatest successes was as Benvenuto Cellini

Benvenuto Cellini

Benvenuto Cellini was an Italian goldsmith, sculptor, painter, soldier and musician, who also wrote a famous autobiography. He was one of the most important artists of Mannerism.-Youth:...

, in which he displayed his ability both as an actor and as a sculptor, really modelling before the eyes of the audience a statue of Hebe

Hebe (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Hēbē is the goddess of youth . She is the daughter of Zeus and Hera. Hebe was the cupbearer for the gods and goddesses of Mount Olympus, serving their nectar and ambrosia, until she was married to Heracles ; her successor was the young Trojan prince Ganymede...

. He sent a number of statuettes to the various exhibitions, notably one of Gilbert Louis Duprez as William Tell

William Tell

William Tell is a folk hero of Switzerland. His legend is recorded in a late 15th century Swiss chronicle....

. Mélingue's wife, Thodorine Thiesset (1813-1886), was the actress selected by 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....

 to create the part of Guanhumara in Burgraves at 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....

, where she remained ten years.
He created the part of D'Artagnan in The Youth of The Musketeers and The Musketeer (a ramatization of 20 Years After by Dumas and also the part of Lagardere in Feval and Anciet-Bourgeois's Hunchback (Le Bossu 1862)(see character lists for these plays. For Dumas his Complete Works, for Le Bossu Librairie de Michel Levy Freres Le Bossu 1862

See Dumas, Une Vie d'artiste; Aventures et tribulations d'un comédien (1854).

External links and reference

• caricature

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