W. Lafontaine

This was probably the pseudonym of Jean Baptiste Joseph Lafontaine who made himself called "Wanincka" (short for Jean in Russian).

Born in the Russian Empire, he came to France in 1802 or 1803 with his father and two brothers. He served in the Imperial Guard from 1812 to 1815 and then as a rifleman until 1817.

After he returned to civilian life, he lived in Paris at 9 Rue du Helder when he married Antoinette Marie Laurentine Almaïde Arnoult de Sartrouville on 18 November 1820. On the marriage certificate, his profession is "man of letters". He then made himself called Wanincka de La Fontaine: he is thus designated on the death certificate of his wife Antoinette, and again on the marriage certificate of his brother Joseph-Pierre at Chamboeuf in 1820 as well as in the birth certificate of his first son Joseph Paul in 1821.

He later became commissaire de police in Paris and lived at 7 rue des Carmelites. Whereas he thought he was exempted to apply for naturalization (since he was married to a French woman and father of five children born in France, and having lived thirty years in France), he must apply to be naturalized French on 28 December 1835 because, at the time, if born abroad, even from French parents, people had to be naturalized to have French nationality and be employed at the service of the State.

His plays were given on the most important Parisian stages of the 19th century, including the Théâtre des Variétés, Théâtre de la Gaîté, and the Théâtre du Vaudeville.

He is buried in Neuilly sur Seine.

• Henry Lyonnet, Dictionnaire des comédiens français, 1911, (p. 408)
• Joseph-Marie Quérard, Lafontaine W., in La France littéraire ou dictionnaire bibliographique des savants..., 1930, (p. 418)