Partner Pierre de Massot
Queer Places:
66 Rue de Caumartin, 75009 Paris, France
Montparnasse cemetery, Paris, France
Eduard Alexandru Max
aka Édouard de Max (February 14, 1869 - October 28, 1924) was a French actor of Romanian origin.
Édouard de Max was a
good friend of Colette; she wanted to write a play about Don Juan for him, but
never got around to it.
Eduard Alexandru Max was born on February 14, 1869 in Iași (Moldova region of Romania). In 1889, as Édouard de Max, he was admitted to the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art in Paris, in the class of Gustave Worms, and had as fellow students Lugné-Poe and Marguerite Moreno, with whom he played several times. He played with Sarah Bernhardt and André Antoine. He is considered by his contemporaries as one of the best actors of his time. He was the very type of lyrical tragedy. He wore extravagant outfits and displayed his homosexuality. He played a daring play, the Prometheus of Jean Lorrain, at the arenas of Béziers in which he appeared naked. He protected André Gide, who wrote Saul for him, and Jean Cocteau, then 19 years old (1908), and whose style fascinated him. To make him known about the All-Paris, he organized a poetic morning at the Femina Theatre, on the Champs-Élysées. In 1915, he joined the French Comedy and became a member in 1918. He liked to appear; he only smoked cigarettes with his name. In winter, he wore otter blankets lined with silver fox in his car. He did not always agree with the decorations of the pieces he played and did not hesitate to bring furniture from his home to hide backgrounds of scenes that were not to his liking. He published an article on this subject in The Spring of Letters in April 1911. It is not known how Edward de Max met Pierre de Massot, his 31-year-old younger partner, but a tender affection was to bind the two men. The latter was present and assisted him on his deathbed. He died on October 28, 1924 at his home in Paris at No. 66 rue de Caumartin, where a plaque affixed to the building recalls his memory. He is buried in Paris at the Montparnasse cemetery.
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