Gaston Leroux

Gaston Louis Alfred Leroux, a French journalist and writer of detective fiction, is most famous in English-speaking countries for his novel The Phantom of the Opera. That book has been adapted into numerous films and stage shows, including the 1925 movie with Lon Chaney and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1986 musical. His earlier novel, The Mystery of the Yellow Room (1908), is widely regarded as a classic locked-room mystery.

Life and career

Leroux was born in Paris in 1868, the illegitimate child of Marie Bidaut and Dominique Leroux, who married a month after his birth. He claimed a noble lineage, including descent from William II of England (Guillaume le Roux), and said he had been the official playmate of Prince Philippe, Count of Paris, at the college d’Eu in Normandy.

After schooling in Normandy and studying law in Caen, where he graduated in 1889, he inherited millions of francs and spent extravagantly until nearly bankrupt. In 1890, he became a court reporter and theater critic for L’Écho de Paris. His most significant journalism began in 1893 when he worked as an international correspondent for the Paris newspaper Le Matin, covering events such as the 1905 Russian Revolution.

He left journalism in 1907 after returning from covering a volcanic eruption and being immediately sent on another assignment without a break. He then turned to writing fiction.

In 1919, with Arthur Bernède, he founded the film company Société des Cinéromans, which published novels and adapted them into films. His first mystery novel, Le mystère de la chambre jaune (1908), introduced the amateur detective Joseph Rouletabille. Leroux’s work in French detective fiction is often compared to that of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the UK and Edgar Allan Poe in the US.

Leroux serialized his most famous work, The Phantom of the Opera, in 1909–1910, publishing it as a book in 1910 (an English translation followed in 1911). His novel Balaoo (1911) was adapted into films in 1913, 1927, and 1942. He was made a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur in 1909. He died at age 58 in Nice, France, in 1927.

Personal life

Leroux married twice. His first wife was Marie Lefranc, from whom he separated in 1902. After the separation, he lived with Jeanne Cayatte from Lorraine; they had a son, Gaston (nicknamed Milinkij), and a daughter, Madeleine. They married in 1917 after Lefranc’s death. In 1918, he co-founded the film production company Société des Cinéromans with René Navarre, releasing two films, Tue-la-Mort and Il était deux petits enfants, in which his daughter played the lead role.