Jean Mounet-Sully
French actor (1841–1916)
Mounet-Sully (28 February 1841 – 3 March 1916), a French actor, was born at Bergerac. His birth name was Jean-Sully Mounet: "Mounet-Sully" (without the "Jean") was a stage name.
Life
He entered the Conservatoire at the age of twenty-one, where he took first prize for tragedy. In 1868 he made his debut at the Odéon without attracting much attention. His career was interrupted by the Franco-Prussian War, and his passion for his military career had almost convinced him to give up the stage, until he was offered the opportunity to play the part of Oreste in Racine's Andromaque at the Comédie Française in 1872.
His striking presence and voice and the passionate vigor of his acting made an immediate impression, which resulted in his election as sociétaire in 1874. He became one of the mainstays of the Comédie Française, and distinguished himself in a great variety of tragic and romantic parts.
Perhaps his most famous role was that of Oedipus in L'Oedipe roi, a French version by Jules Lacroix of Sophocles's drama. This was first performed in Paris at the Théâtre-Français in 1881 and later revived in the old Roman amphitheater at Orange, Vaucluse in 1888. Fashion designer Paul Poiret commented in his autobiography King of Fashion, "I shall always see Mounet-Sully in Oedipus Rex, blind, coming down the steps of the temple, and saying in a suave voice: 'Children of ancient Cadmus, young successors. .
“Jean Mounet-Sully” enters the record as french actor (1841–1916). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Jean, Mounet-Sully and French can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 4, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q2657745. VIAF identifies the subject as 29665509. The Library of Congress control number is no92019884. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1841, 1916, 1868 and 1872.
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This entry incorporates text from “Jean Mounet-Sully” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.