born April 1, 1868, Marseille, France died Dec. 2, 1918, Paris French playwright. He wrote poetry, essays, and plays for puppet theatre before his first stage play, The Red Glove, was performed in 1888. His most popular work is the heroic comedy Cyrano de Bergerac (1898), the story of an ugly, long-nosed soldier who despairs of winning the woman he loves and helps a friend woo her instead. A final, belated example of French Romantic drama, it was enormously successful internationally. He also wrote The Eaglet (1900) for Sarah Bernhardt