Raymond Poisson

For the Canadian Roman Catholic bishop, see Raymond Poisson (bishop).

Raymond Poisson (1630–1690) was a French actor and playwright. Mainly a comic actor, he used the stage names Crispin in comedy and Belleroche in tragedy.^[1]

Poisson as Crispin

Career

Poisson joined the company of the Hôtel de Bourgogne in Paris, primarily as a comic rival to Molière, who played at the Palais-Royal.^[1] As a comedian Poisson wore a black servant costume in a Spanish style^[1] and was noted for his stutter.^[2] He appropriated the character of Crispin from Scarron's L'Écolier de Salamanque (1654), playing it himself,^[2] and wrote and appeared in Lubin (1660) and Le Baron de la Crasse (1661).^[1]

He became a founding member of the Comédie-Française in 1680.^[3] His son Paul and his grandsons Philippe and Francois-Arnoul all became actors, whilst his granddaughter Madeleine-Angélique de Gomez became a writer.