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François-Joseph Talma (1763–1826)
Talma, François-Joseph (täl-mä’). A great French actor and writer; born in Paris, Jan. 15, 1763; died on Oct. 19, 1826. He was educated at Mazarin College, and afterwards went to London with his father, a dentist; studied in the hospitals there, and on returning to Paris was apprenticed to a dentist. He had been on the stage, however, both in London and Paris, and made his professional début, Nov. 21, 1787, at the Comédie Française. He founded, with a few others, the theatre afterwards known as the Théâtre de la République. He won his fame as a tragedian, but made many improvements in the naturalness of stage productions. He wrote: ‘Mémoires de Le Kain, et Réflexions sur cet Acteur et sur l’Art Théatral’ (1825), which was republished in 1856 under a slightly different title. His own ‘Mémoires’ were edited by Alexandre Dumas (1856).