François-Joseph Talma  Talma, lithograph by G. EngelmannCourtesy
of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London  François-Joseph
Talma,  (born Jan. 16, 1763Paris—died Oct. 19,
1826, Paris), French actor and theatrical company manager whose
reforms in acting styles, stage costuming, and scenery made him
a leading precursor of 19th-century French Romanticism and
Realism.  Although Talma’s father, a dentist, wanted his son to
become a dentist as well, young Talma spent his time instead in
amateur theatricals and made his professional debut at the
Comédie-Française on Nov. 21, 1787, as Seide in Voltaire’s
Mahomet. Influenced by his friend the painter David, he became
one of the early advocates of historical costuming when he
appeared in a Roman toga and headdress in the small role of
Proculus in Voltaire’s Brutus.  Until Nov. 4, 1789, Talma had
taken only minor roles; on that day he took over the title role
in Marie-Joseph-Blaise de Chenier’s anti-monarchical Charles IX
after it had been turned down by other actors, w