Pierre Bocage

Bocage, Pierre 

Born Nov. 11, 1799 (1797?), in Rouen; died Aug. 30, 1862 (1863?), in Paris. French actor.

Bocage’s stage career began in 1821. He performed in the Odéon (director after 1845), Porte Saint-Martin, and other theaters of Paris. He took part in the Revolution of 1830. Bocage was one of the greatest actors of the romantic epoch in France. He played rebel heroes, protesting against violence and injustice—for instance, Didier (in Hugo’s Marion Delorme), Antony and Bouridan (in Antony and La Tour de Nesle by Dumas père), and Oscar (in Piat’s The Thief and the Philosopher). Bocage’s art, characterized by stormy emotion, expressed deep and strong feelings. Bocage was removed from his post as director of the Odéon for his oppositional attitudes that became pronounced after the failure of the Revolution of 1848. During the last years of his life he worked in provincial theaters.

REFERENCE

Ginisty, P. Bocage. Paris, 1932.