Louis Dega (sometimes written Louis Delga) is the name of a character in

Henri Charrière Henri Charrière (; 16 November 1906 – 29 July 1973) was a French writer, convicted in 1931 as a murderer by the French courts and pardoned in 1970. He wrote the novel '' Papillon'', a memoir of his incarceration in and escape from a pena ...

's novel '' Papillon''. In the 1973 film this character was played by

Dustin Hoffman Dustin Lee Hoffman (born August 8, 1937) is an American actor and filmmaker. As one of the key actors in the formation of New Hollywood, Hoffman is known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and emotionally vulnerable characters. He is ...

and in the 2017 film the role was played by Rami Malek. Purportedly an autobiography, few of the characters and events in ''Papillon'' could be corroborated and it is perhaps best regarded as a narrative novel, combining and embellishing the adventures of Charrière and several fellow inmates, in particular of

René Belbenoît Jules René Lucien Belbenoît (; 4 April 1899 – 25 February 1959) was a French prisoner on Devil's Island who successfully escaped to the United States. He later published the memoirs, ''Dry Guillotine'' (1938) and ''Hell on Trial'' (1940), ab ...

and Charles Brunier. In the book, Dega is introduced as one who "had been caught up in the scandal of the counterfeit National Defense bonds", had become rich and "one of the biggest crooks" in the

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

underworld, but was exposed as the lead forger in 1929 by one "Brioulet", an arrested partner in this crime, when Dega had refused to help him to pay for a lawyer. He was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment on Devil's Island, where he became a companion of Charrière for 13 years. The two were first sent to a prison in Caen, where they made a deal in which Dega paid Papillon for protection, until they embarked for South America in 1932. Dega's younger brother Joseph tried to help Charrière escape from Barranquilla prison in Colombia. The two became best friends during their sentence. There was a real bonds counterfeit scandal, for which multiple people were arrested in

Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand ...

in 1925, the main forger among them one Fernand Royer born in Paris in 1881, but the names Dega or Brioulet were not associated with it. Dega likely is a fusion of two or more people Charrière had met or read about. Gérard de Villiers, ''Papillon épinglé – La vérité sur le bagne et sur le Venezuela'', Presses de la cité, 1970,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dega, Louis Literary characters introduced in 1969 Fictional French people Fictional prisoners and detainees