in his earlier days, françois talma said of kean, "he is a magnificent uncut gem; polish and round him off and he will be a perfect tragedian." william macready, who was amazed by kean's "richard iii", met the actor at supper, speaks of his "unassuming manner ... partaking in some degree of shyness" and of the "touching grace" of his singing. kean's way of saying "i answer—no!" while acting as sir edward mortimer in "the iron chest", made macready know that he had no chance of getting the role from kean. kean's life was so full of dramatic interest that it was the subject (topic) for the play "kean" by jean-paul sartre as well as a play by alexandre dumas, entitled "kean, ou désordre et génie", where actor frédérick lemaître achieved one of his greatest success. in 1924, director alexandre volkoff made play by alexandre dumas into a french silent feature film with russian actor ivan mosjoukine, who was then living in paris, as the lead actor.