Pierre-Martinien Tousez, better known by his stage name Bocage, (Rouen, November 11, 1799–Paris, August 30, 1862) was a French actor.
Born into a poor family of laborers, Bocage was, early on, forced to work in a weaving factory in order to earn an income.
Having learned how to read and write without going to school, he began to read, from an early age, the works of Shakespeare.
He had an opportunity to get on the stage, and he decided to head on to Paris on foot, in order to fulfill his dreams of being an actor.
There he entered the Paris Conservatoire, but had to leave it because his financial resources could not afford him the cost of tuition.
Handsome, talented but undisciplined, he went through a difficult start and had to spend several years on obscure provincial stages, before he joined the cast of the Porte Saint-Martin.
In Paris, he was attached to the various dramatic theaters, and became extremely popular as a major interpreter of romantic creations: Antony, Marion Delorme, The Tour de Nesle, Don Juan de Marana, etc.
A politically active citizen, Bocage mingled into the literary movement of his time with a zeal that endowed him with an influence that he tried to put to use during the French Revolution of 1848.