Porthos

Porthos, baron du Vallon de Bracieux de Pierrefonds (his first name is unknown) is a fictional character in the novels The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After and The Vicomte de Bragelonne by Alexandre Dumas, père. He and the other two musketeers Athos and Aramis are friends of the novel's protagonist, d'Artagnan (see D'Artagnan Romances). He carries a sword that Aramis nicknamed Balizarde.

In The Three Musketeers his family name is du Vallon. In Twenty Years After, after a successful wedding, he is first known as du Vallon de Bracieux de Pierrefonds, then he earns the title of baron.^[1]

Porthos, honest and slightly gullible, is the extrovert of the group, enjoying wine, women and song. His eating abilities even impress King Louis XIV during a banquet at Versailles. As the story advances, he looks more and more of a giant, and his death is that of a titan.

At the time of The Three Musketeers (ca. 1627) he apparently has few lands or other resources to draw from. He was finally able to extract sufficient funds from an elderly lawyer's somewhat younger wife (whom he was romancing) to equip himself for the Siege of La Rochelle.

The fictional Porthos is very loosely based on the historical musketeer Isaac de Portau.

Film and television

Actors who have played Porthos on screen include:

• Charles Martinelli, in Les trois mousquetaires (1921)
• Moroni Olsen, in The Three Musketeers (1935) and At Sword's Point (1952)
• Alan Hale, Sr. in The Man in the Iron Mask (1939)
• Gig Young, in The Three Musketeers (1948)
• John Colicos, in The Three Musketeers (TV movie) (1960)
• Frank Finlay, in The Three Musketeers (1973), The Four Musketeers (1974)
• Alan Hale, Jr., in The Fifth Musketeer (1979)
• Valentin Smirnitskiy, in D'Artagnan and Three Musketeers (1978) and its sequels (1992, 1993)
• Doug Stone, in Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds
• Oliver Platt, in The Three Musketeers (1993)
• Raoul Billerey, in La Fille de d'Artagnan (1994)
• Rex Ryon, in an early 1998 film of The Man in the Iron Mask
• Gérard Depardieu, in The Man in the Iron Mask (1998)
• Steven Spiers, in The Musketeer (2001)
• Anthony Strachan, in Young Blades (unaired TV series pilot) (2001)
• John Rhys-Davies, in two episodes of The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne (2000) and La Femme Musketeer (TV movie) (2003)
• Joe Jonas, in The Three Musketeers (Disney TV series JONAS)

Note: In addition to the role listed above, Hale, Jr., also played a same-named and heroic son of Porthos in At Sword's Point.

References