Everything about Charles Fechter totally explained
Charles Albert Fechter (
October 23,
1824 -
August 5,
1879) was an Anglo-French
actor.==Biography==
Fechter was born, probably in
London, of French parents, although his mother was of
Piedmontese and his father of
German extraction.
As a boy he'd ambitions to be a
sculptor's life but discovered his talent accidentally while appearing in some private theatricals. In
1841 he joined a travelling company that was going to
Italy. The tour was a failure, and the company broke up; Fechter returned home and resumed the study of sculpture. At the same time he attended classes at the Conservatoire with the view of gaining admission to the
Comédie Française. Late in 1844 he won the grand medal of the
Académie des Beaux-Arts with a piece of sculpture, and made his debut at the
Comédie Francaise as Seide in
Voltaire's
Mahomet and Valère in
Molière's
Tartuffe. He acquitted himself with credit; but, tired of the small parts he found himself condemned to play, returned again to his sculptor's studio in
1846.
In the same year he was invited to appear with a French company in
Berlin, where he made his first decisive success as an actor. On his return to Paris in the following year he married the actress
Eléonore Rabut (d. 1895). Previously he'd appeared for some months in London, in a season of French classical plays given at the
St James's Theatre. In Paris for the next ten years he fulfilled a series of successful engagements at various theatres, his chief triumph being his creation at the Vaudeville on
February 2,
1852 of the part of Armand Duval in
La Dame aux camilias. For nearly two years (1857-1858) Fechter was manager of the
Odéon, where he produced
Tartuffe and other classical plays.
Having received tempting offers to act in English at the
Princess's Theatre, London, he made a diligent study of the
English language, and appeared there on
October 27,
1860 in an English version of
Victor Hugo's
Ruy Blas. This was followed by
The Corsican Brothers and
Don César de Bazan; and on
March 20,
1861, he attempted
Hamlet for the first time. The result was an extraordinary triumph, the play running for 115 nights. This was followed by
Othello, in which he played alternately the Moor and Iago. In
1863 he became lessee of the Lyceum theatre, which he opened with
The Duke's Motto; this was followed by
The King's Butterfly,
The Mountebank (in which his son Paul, a boy of seven, appeared),
The Roadside Inn,
The Master of Ravenswood,
The Corsican Brothers (in the original French version, in which he'd created the parts of Louis and Fabian dei Franchi) and
The Lady of Lyons.
After this he appeared at the
Adelphi Theatre (1868) as Obenreizer in
No Thoroughfare, by
Charles Dickens and
Wilkie Collins, as Edmond Dantes in
The Count of Monte Cristo, and as Count de Leyrac in
Black and White, a play in which the actor himself collaborated with Wilkie Collins. In
1870 he visited the
United States, where (with the exception of a visit to London in 1872) he remained till his death. His first appearance in New York was at
Niblo's Garden. in the title role of
Ruy Blas. He played in the United States between 1870 and 1876 in most of the parts in which he'd won his chief triumphs in Britain. He made a few attempts at management, but was mostly unsuccessful, owing to his ungovernable temper. The last three years of his life were spent in seclusion on a farm which he'd bought at Rockland Centre, near
Quakertown, Pennsylvania, where he died. A bust of the actor by himself is in the
Garrick Club, London.
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