Cyrano de Bergerac

Cyrano de Bergerac was a seventeenth-century French writer and duelist, but the name now evokes the 1897 play by Edmond Rostand.

In that drama, Cyrano is a brilliant swordsman and poet with an enormous nose who ghostwrites love letters for a handsomer rival.

The character has become shorthand for eloquent men who help others woo: He played Cyrano for his tongue-tied roommate.