GOLFE-JUAN, France—Frank Samson has prepared for a long time to meet his Waterloo.
The French lawyer impersonates Napoleon
Bonaparte at re-enactment battles, but it is no idle hobby. Mr. Samson
has found what he says are perfect replicas of the French general's gray
overcoat, he has studied Napoleon's native Corsican tongue and he has
had himself crowned emperor of France, in a cathedral yet.
In 2015, he wants to lead thousands of
military enthusiasts into the ultimate re-enactment: the 200th
anniversary of the battle of Waterloo in Belgium.
But an American rival stands in his way.
Mark Schneider, an actor in Virginia with a strong resemblance to Napoleon, is also vying for the marquee role.
One day recently Mr. Samson sat in a
tent in a parking lot in this French seaside town, preparing for an
event. Slouched on an exact replica of one of Napoleon's chairs,
surrounded by several of his generals, the Frenchman bristled at the
mention of the other Napoleon. Mr. Schneider "has an enormous flaw," the
45-year-old says. "He is an Anglo-Saxon."
"Can you
imagine Napoleon addressing his army with a ridiculous accent?" says
Mr. Samson sitting up straight. "The horror! The horror!"
Mr. Schneider, who makes his living
impersonating bygone characters at a living museum in Williamsburg, Va.,
denies that. "I speak French with a Corsican accent," he says. The
43-year-old sees no problem with foreigners holding key Napoleonic
roles. "Of course the Grande Armée was international," he says. "The
Napoleonic Wars were international."
Both men have made appearances as
Napoleon Bonaparte, retracing his various conquests across Europe
leading up to his final defeat at Waterloo in 1815. Mr. Schneider once
rode a white stallion through the Brandenburg Gate in front of 20,000
people as part of a re-enactment of Napoleon's occupation of Berlin.
Near Moscow, he re-created France's doomed 1812 invasion of Russia.
Mr. Samson has twice crowned himself
emperor of France—once wearing a lavish gown in a cathedral before 700
people. A stickler for detail, Mr. Samson carts an actual Napoleonic-era
toilet with him to re-enactment events and buys replica gold-colored
coins from Hong Kong to pay his fake soldiers.
The level of competition is causing a
headache for the organizers tipped to run Waterloo 2015, set to feature
thousands of soldiers staging one of the biggest Waterloo re-enactments
ever.
"Both have the right face," says Frank
Simon, a Belgian librarian who plays a variety of Napoleonic generals
and is on the organizing committee. "Choosing one, it's a big dilemma."
During
some periods in the past, the role of Napoleon changed hands more often
than James Bonds have done in the movies. In the late 1980s, six
Napoleons turned up to an event at Waterloo, says Jean-Pierre Mir, a
French Napoleonic re-enactment veteran. During Waterloo 1995, Mr. Mir
says, a man playing Napoleon suffered cardiac arrest while inspecting
the troops and needed medical attention.
The period of instability ended in the
late 1990s when an Italian made the role his own, Mr. Mir says. But in
2003 he took sick and stepped down. That made for a crisis just as a
series of key 200th anniversaries of Napoleonic battles were looming.
Mr. Schneider has been preparing for
his close-up for most of his life. As a boy, he made himself red
epaulets, wore baseball pants and ran around with a French flag his
mother made for him. "Kids had Batman and Robin and Superman upon their
desks. I had a picture of Napoleon," recalls Mr. Schneider. "I was often
ridiculed."
In 1998, after a stint in the U.S.
Army, Mr. Schneider joined a re-enactment cavalry group and appeared in
several History Channel documentaries playing the fellow. In 2005 he got
his big break: he was summoned to play the French leader at an annual
Waterloo re-enactment.
Other roles followed. Mr. Schneider
acquired a reputation for playing the role with vigor. Duncan Miles, an
Englishman who plays a member of the French 45th Regiment of line
infantry, recalls having a tear in his eye as Mr. Schneider tipped his
two-cornered hat to the troops during a re-creation of the 1806 battle
of the Jena. "If an American can achieve that feeling in an Englishman
200 years after the events simply by representing Napoleon, I don't see
how the legend will ever die," he said.
This success didn't go unnoticed in
France. The French, led by Mr. Mir, the veteran French re-enactor,
conspired to put one of their own back on the throne.
Frank Samson had long collected
military uniforms. In 2005, friends persuaded him to wear his Napoleon
outfit to an event in Brittany, in Northern France. He was a hit. Mr.
Samson later cemented the role by placing a gold crown on his own head
during a celebration of Napoleon's 1804 coronation.
Mr. Samson goes to great lengths to
embody Napoleon. His wife sometimes joins him dressed as Napoleon's
first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais. In September he will re-enact the
French emperor's second marriage to a younger Austrian princess, raising
his own tricky casting dilemma.
"My wife looks very young for her age," Mr. Samson says. "But a replacement may need to be found…It's a delicate situation."
Mr. Samson is sorry that he is
slightly less than an inch taller than Napoleon was. But he dismisses
claims that Mr. Schneider is the spitting image of the general, saying
that his rival's face is too thin to represent the older Napoleon. "Also
he doesn't have the right embroidery on his saddle."
Mr. Schneider points out that, at
5-foot-7, he is exactly the same height as Napoleon. He also shares the
French leader's distinctive nose. Napoleon "was born in 1769 and I was
born in 1969," he says. "All of this makes my job easier."
But Mr. Schneider has been hampered by
legal problems. He currently spends two days a week in jail near
Williamsburg after pleading guilty to driving under the influence in
2008. He has taken 2013 off from traveling to Europe for re-enactments.
The American hopes to return in 2014,
in time to be exiled to Elba. Napoleon was sent to the island off the
Italian coast in 1814 after his army was defeated and he abdicated. Mr.
Samson says he also wants to be exiled to Elba.
In 1815 Napoleon returned to France,
landing at Golfe-Juan, and marched the length of the country building
support. Both Mr. Samson and Mr. Schneider would like to do that too. In
June 2015 one of them will square off against an allied re-enactment
army, celebrating the one led by the British Duke of Wellington and the
Prussian general Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher.
"I am not going to play the prude
little girl. I want this," Mr. Samson says. If Mr. Schneider gets the
job, "I am going to apply for the role of Wellington," he adds.
(Wellington is currently played by a New Zealander).
After 2015, Mr. Schneider says, he would like to visit the remote Island of St. Helena, where Napoleon eventually died in exile.
Mr. Samson will go a step further. He
will effectively exile himself from the role, refusing to ever dress up
as Napoleon again. "I just wouldn't be credible otherwise."
Write to Max Colchester at max.colchester@wsj.com
A version of this article appeared April 7,
2013, on page A1 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with
the headline: Complex Napoleon Rivalry Heads For Its
Waterloo.
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American Mark Schneider portrays Napole
