Molière

Considered one of the great comic playwrights in Western history, Jean-Baptiste Poquelin a.k.a. Molière (1622-1673) was born to a prosperous bourgeois family in Paris and founded his own theater company at age 21 with proceeds from the court title that his father had purchased. He likely changed his name to spare his family the shame of having an actor in it. His performances in front of King Louis XIV won him royal backing, though his satirical plays such as The School for Wives, Tartuffe, and Don Juan earned him enemies among the court and the church. His severe workload eventually led him to collapse while starring in a performance of his The Imaginary Invalid, shortly after which he died from pulmonary tuberculosis.