Biography
Fechter was born, probably in London, of French parents, although his mother was of Piedmontese and his father of
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
extraction.
As a boy he had ambitions to be a
sculptorSculpture 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...
'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-FrançaiseThe 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....
. Late in 1844 he won the grand medal of the
Académie des Beaux-ArtsThe Académie des Beaux-Arts is a French learned society. It is one of the five academies of the Institut de France.It was created in 1795 as the merger of the:* Académie de peinture et de sculpture...
with a piece of sculpture, and made his debut at the Comédie-Française as Seide in
VoltaireFrançois-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...
's
MahometMahomet is a five-act tragedy written in 1736 by French playwright and philosopher Voltaire. It received its debut performance in Lille on 25 April 1741....
and Valère in
MolièreJean-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...
's
TartuffeTartuffe is a comedy by Molière. It is one of his most famous plays.-History:Molière wrote Tartuffe in 1664...
. 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 had appeared for some months in London, in a season of French classical plays given at the
St James's TheatreThe St James's Theatre was a 1,200-seat theatre located in King Street, at Duke Street, St James's, London. The elaborate theatre was designed with a neo-classical exterior and a Louis XIV style interior by Samuel Beazley and built by the partnership of Peto & Grissell for the tenor and 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 2 February 1852 of the part of Armand Duval in
La Dame aux camélias. For nearly two years (1857–1858) Fechter was manager of the
OdéonThe Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe is one of France's six national theatres.It is located at 2 rue Corneille in the 6th arrondissement of Paris on the left bank of the Seine, next to the Luxembourg Garden...
, where he produced
Tartuffe and other classical plays.
Having received tempting offers to act in English at the
Princess's Theatre, LondonThe Princess's Theatre or Princess Theatre was a theatre in Oxford Street, London. The building opened in 1828 as the "Queen's Bazaar" and housed a diorama by Clarkson Stanfield and David Roberts. It was converted into a theatre and opened in 1836 as the Princess's Theatre, named for then Princess...
, he made a diligent study of the English language, and appeared there on 27 October 1860 in an English version of
Victor HugoVictor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
's
Ruy BlasRuy Blas is a tragic drama by Victor Hugo. It was the first play presented at the Théâtre de la Renaissance and opened on November 8, 1838. Though considered by many to be Hugo’s best drama, the play initially met with only average success....
. This was followed by
The Corsican Brothers and
Don César de Bazan; and on 20 March 1861, he attempted
HamletThe Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
for the first time. The result was an extraordinary triumph, the play running for 115 nights. This was followed by
OthelloThe Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
, 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 had created the parts of Louis and Fabian dei Franchi) and
The Lady of Lyons.
After this he appeared at the
Adelphi TheatreThe Adelphi Theatre is a 1500-seat West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster. The present building is the fourth on the site. The theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, and today it is a receiving house for a variety of productions, including many musicals...
(1868) as Obenreizer in
No Thoroughfare, by
Charles DickensCharles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
and
Wilkie CollinsWilliam Wilkie Collins was an English novelist, playwright, and author of short stories. He was very popular during the Victorian era and wrote 30 novels, more than 60 short stories, 14 plays, and over 100 non-fiction pieces...
, as Edmond Dantes in
The Count of Monte CristoThe Count of Monte Cristo is an adventure novel by Alexandre Dumas. It is often considered to be, along with The Three Musketeers, Dumas's most popular work. He completed the work in 1844...
, 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 GardenNiblo's Garden was a New York theatre on Broadway, near Prince Street. It was established in 1823 as "Columbia Garden" which in 1828 gained the name of the Sans Souci and was later the property of the coffeehouse proprietor and caterer William Niblo. The large theatre that evolved in several...
. 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 had 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 with his then wife, Lizzie Price, on a farm which he had bought at Rockland Centre, near
Quakertown, PennsylvaniaQuakertown is a borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 8,979. The borough is south of Bethlehem and north of Philadelphia, making Quakertown a border town of both the Delaware Valley and Lehigh Valley metropolitan areas...
, where he died. A bust of the actor by himself is in the
Garrick ClubThe Garrick Club is a gentlemen's club in London.-History:The Garrick Club was founded at a meeting in the Committee Room at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on Wednesday 17 August 1831...
, London.
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