Joachim Daniel Preisler

Joachim Daniel Preisler (born in Copenhagen on 16 November 1755 2 April 1809) was a Danish actor. Early life and education Joachim Daniel Preisler was born on 16 November 1755 in Copenhagen as the son of Johan Martin Preisler, a renowned professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. In his childhood, the German intellectual community of the day in Denmark, first among whom was the poet Klopstock, used to gather at his parents house. The young Joachim Daniel impressed the guests by speaking perfectly French, German, and Danish, reciting poetries, singing, and playing the piano or the violin. Acting career After having studied theology, he fell for actress Marie Cathrine Devegge whom he married on 4 December 1778. A few months later he made his debut as an actor on 26 January 1779. His good looks and hard work helped him becoming rapidly a popular actor, able to play both tragic or comic roles, or deceitful ones such as Tartuffe by Molière or Loki in the Death of Baldur by Johannes Ewald. He is remembered among others for his impressive rendition of the character of Prince Gonzaga in Emilia Galotti by Lessing, where he excelled in displaying the ambiguity of the role which reflected to some extent his own character Preisler made various study tours in 1786 and 1787 to Hamburg to the theater of Friedrich Ludwig Schröder. In 1788, he went to France and Germany at the request of the Danish Royal Theater in Copenhagen to study the conditions prevailing in theaters there.