Jean-Gaspard "Baptiste" Deburau as Pierrot, image circa 1830.

Jean-Gaspard Deburau (also Debureau) (born Jan Kašpar Dvořák on July 31, 1796 - June 17, 1846) was a Bohemian-French actor and mime.

Born in Kolín, Bohemia (now Czech Republic), he adapted the conventions of Italian commedia dell'arte to Parisian tastes. He performed in Paris at the Théâtre des Funambules, which was immortalized in Marcel Carné's poetic realist film Les Enfants du Paradis ("Children of Paradise"), 1945. His most famous mime character was Pierrot, whose classic image Debureau fixed, a moonstruck tragic silent suffering lover in a flowing white smock and pantaloons.

Debureau immortalized the silent Pierrot pantomimes, which we today call pantomime blanche because of the whiteface the artist wears. All Paris came to applaud Debureau at the Théâtre des Funambules. His Pierrot, though inspired by the lazy, mischievous valet Pedrolino of the commedia dell'arte, soon became an essentially French character. He changed Pierrot from a cynical, grotesque rogue into a poetic fellow and brought a personal expression to the fantasy, acrobatics, melodrama, and spectacular staging that characterized 19th-century pantomimes. Not only did he add extempore bits of business to a given action, but he also invented his own scenarios. Just as for several centuries the commedia dell'arte, which depended on the actor's improvisational skills, had influenced European theatre, 19th-century pantomime, with Debureau's inventive genius, reached great heights.

Debureau is buried at the famous Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. After his death, his son Charles Durburau took over his school and established the modern tradition of whiteface mime, personified for many English speakers by Marcel Marceau.

Sources

• Annette Bercut Lust, From the Greek Mimes to Marcel Marceau and Beyond: Mimes, Actors, Pierrots and Clowns: A Chronicle of the Many Visages of Mime in the Theatre (2002)

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