TALMA, FRANCOIS JOSEPH (1763-1826), French actor, was born in Paris on Jan. 15, 1763. His father, a dentist there, and afterwards in London, gave him a good English educa tion, and he returned to Paris, where for a year and a half he prac tised dentistry. He made his debut at the Comedie Frantaise as Seide in Mahomet (Nov. 21, 1787). Talma was among the earliest advocates of realism in scenery and costume, being aided by his friend the painter David. His first essay in this direc tion took the f orm of appearing in the small role of Proculus in Brutus, with a toga and Roman headdress, much to the surprise of an audience accustomed to 18th century costume on the stage whatever the period represented might be. Talma possessed in perfection the physical gifts of a great tragedian. At first somewhat stilted and monotonous in his manner, he be came by perfection of art a model of simplicity. Talma married Julie Carreau, in whose salon were the principal Girondists.
In 18o8 the emperor had taken him to Erfurt and made him play the Mort de Cesar to a company of crowned heads. Five years later he took him also to Dresden. Talma was also a friend
of Joseph Chenier, Danton, and Camille Desmoulins. In anti-monarchical Charles IX., produced on Nov. 4, 1789, a pro phetic couplet on the destruction of the Bastille made the house burst into a salvo of applause, led by Mirabeau. This play aroused political dissensions in the Comedie Francaise which led Talma to establish a new theatre known for a time as the Theatre de la Republique, on the site of the present Theatre Francais. Here he won his greatest triumphs. He made his last appearance on June II, 1826, as Charles VI. in tragedy, and he died in Paris on Oct. 19, of that year.
Talma was the author of Memoires de Lekain, precedes de reflexions sur cet acteur et sur l'art theatral, contributed to the Collection des memoires sur l'art drainatique, and published separately (1856) as Reflexions de Talma sur Lekain et Part theatral. See Memoires de F. J. Talma, icrits par lui-meme, et recueillis et mis en ordre sur les papiers de sa famine, by Alex. Dumas (135o) J. B. J. I. P. Regnault Warin, Memoires sur Talma (1904).