Paul Legrand

Paul Legrand (1816–1898), born Charles-Dominique-Martin Legrand, was a highly regarded and influential French mime who turned the Pierrot of his predecessor, Jean-Gaspard Deburau, into the tearful, sentimental character that is most familiar to post-19th-century admirers of the figure. He was the first of the Parisian mimes of his era (the second was Deburau fils) to take his art abroad—to London, in late 1847, for a holiday engagement at the Adelphi—and, after triumphs in mid-century Paris at the Folies-Nouvelles, he entertained audiences in Cairo and Rio de Janeiro. In the last years of the century, he was a member of the Cercle Funambulesque, a theatrical society that promoted work, especially pantomime, inspired by the Commedia dell'Arte, past and present. The year of his death coincided with the last year of the Cercle's existence.

Like Deburau père, he was of humble birth—he was the son of a grocer in Saintes—but, unlike Deburau, whose vocation seems to have been chosen by his father, he was early drawn to the Parisian stage by an irresistible love of the theater. He made his debut in 1839 at the Concert Bonne-Nouvelle; there his "unique ambition", according to his biographer "J.M.", "was, in this time of naïveté, to play the Lovers of vaudeville ... " When, later in that same year, he signed on with the management of the Théâtre des Funambules, where Deburau still held sway, it was as the "comic" of the vaudevilles and the lover, Leander, of the pantomimes. But it was Pierrot, according to Deburau's biographer, Tristan Rémy, "that better suited his fancy", and, after understudying the master for a half-dozen years, he appeared in the role in 1845, probably in the many revivals of old pantomimes. When Deburau died in 1846, he assumed the white blouse in all the new pieces.

In the following year, however, Deburau's son, Jean-Charles ("Charles", as he preferred [1829–1873]), also made his debut as Pierrot at the same theater, and its manager, Charles-Louis Billion, careless of finding ways to harmonize their disparate talents, ended up fomenting rivalry between them. As a consequence, Legrand left the theater in 1853, finding employment across the street at the Folies-Concertantes, which, after several months, underwent renovation, then was reopened as the Folies-Nouvelles. This would remain Legrand's venue until 1859, and it was here that he won the wide admiration of the public. When the theater changed hands, and its new director proved unsympathetic to pantomime, the years of his itinerancy began: two years in Brazil, then a long stint at the Théâtre Alcazar in Bordeaux (1864–1870); an Egyptian tour in 1870. When he returned to Paris after the Franco-Prussian War and the Commune, it was for an eight-year engagement at the Tertulia, a café-spectacle that had little of the old luster of the Folies-Nouvelles. The last two years of his professional career (1886–1887) were spent at the Théâtre-Vivienne, which catered primarily to children.

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