American Mark Schneider portrays Napoleon. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images


The French lawyer impersonates Napoleon Bonaparte at re-enactment battles, but it is no idle hobby. Mr. Samson has found what he says are perfect replicas of the French general's gray overcoat, he has studied Napoleon's native Corsican tongue and he has had himself crowned emperor of France, in a cathedral yet.


But an American rival stands in his way.

Mark Schneider, an actor in Virginia with a strong resemblance to Napoleon, is also vying for the marquee role.

One day recently Mr. Samson sat in a tent in a parking lot in this French seaside town, preparing for an event. Slouched on an exact replica of one of Napoleon's chairs, surrounded by several of his generals, the Frenchman bristled at the mention of the other Napoleon. Mr. Schneider "has an enormous flaw," the 45-year-old says. "He is an Anglo-Saxon."

Frenchman Frank Samson portrays Napoleon. Association 1804

"Can you imagine Napoleon addressing his army with a ridiculous accent?" says Mr. Samson sitting up straight. "The horror! The horror!"

Mr. Schneider, who makes his living impersonating bygone characters at a living museum in Williamsburg, Va., denies that. "I speak French with a Corsican accent," he says. The 43-year-old sees no problem with foreigners holding key Napoleonic roles. "Of course the Grande Armée was international," he says. "The Napoleonic Wars were international."

Both men have made appearances as Napoleon Bonaparte, retracing his various conquests across Europe leading up to his final defeat at Waterloo in 1815. Mr. Schneider once rode a white stallion through the Brandenburg Gate in front of 20,000 people as part of a re-enactment of Napoleon's occupation of Berlin. Near Moscow, he re-created France's doomed 1812 invasion of Russia.

Mr. Samson has twice crowned himself emperor of France—once wearing a lavish gown in a cathedral before 700 people. A stickler for detail, Mr. Samson carts an actual Napoleonic-era toilet with him to re-enactment events and buys replica gold-colored coins from Hong Kong to pay his fake soldiers.

The level of competition is causing a headache for the organizers tipped to run Waterloo 2015, set to feature thousands of soldiers staging one of the biggest Waterloo re-enactments ever.

"Both have the right face," says Frank Simon, a Belgian librarian who plays a variety of Napoleonic generals and is on the organizing committee. "Choosing one, it's a big dilemma."

During some periods in the past, the role of Napoleon changed hands more often than James Bonds have done in the movies. In the late 1980s, six Napoleons turned up to an event at Waterloo, says Jean-Pierre Mir, a French Napoleonic re-enactment veteran. During Waterloo 1995, Mr. Mir says, a man playing Napoleon suffered cardiac arrest while inspecting the troops and needed medical attention.

The period of instability ended in the late 1990s when an Italian made the role his own, Mr. Mir says. But in 2003 he took sick and stepped down. That made for a crisis just as a series of key 200th anniversaries of Napoleonic battles were looming.

Mr. Schneider has been preparing for his close-up for most of his life. As a boy, he made himself red epaulets, wore baseball pants and ran around with a French flag his mother made for him. "Kids had Batman and Robin and Superman upon their desks. I had a picture of Napoleon," recalls Mr. Schneider. "I was often ridiculed."

In 1998, after a stint in the U.S. Army, Mr. Schneider joined a re-enactment cavalry group and appeared in several History Channel documentaries playing the fellow. In 2005 he got his big break: he was summoned to play the French leader at an annual Waterloo re-enactment.

Other roles followed. Mr. Schneider acquired a reputation for playing the role with vigor. Duncan Miles, an Englishman who plays a member of the French 45th Regiment of line infantry, recalls having a tear in his eye as Mr. Schneider tipped his two-cornered hat to the troops during a re-creation of the 1806 battle of the Jena. "If an American can achieve that feeling in an Englishman 200 years after the events simply by representing Napoleon, I don't see how the legend will ever die," he said.

This success didn't go unnoticed in France. The French, led by Mr. Mir, the veteran French re-enactor, conspired to put one of their own back on the throne.

Frank Samson had long collected military uniforms. In 2005, friends persuaded him to wear his Napoleon outfit to an event in Brittany, in Northern France. He was a hit. Mr. Samson later cemented the role by placing a gold crown on his own head during a celebration of Napoleon's 1804 coronation.

Mr. Samson goes to great lengths to embody Napoleon. His wife sometimes joins him dressed as Napoleon's first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais. In September he will re-enact the French emperor's second marriage to a younger Austrian princess, raising his own tricky casting dilemma.

"My wife looks very young for her age," Mr. Samson says. "But a replacement may need to be found…It's a delicate situation."

Mr. Samson is sorry that he is slightly less than an inch taller than Napoleon was. But he dismisses claims that Mr. Schneider is the spitting image of the general, saying that his rival's face is too thin to represent the older Napoleon. "Also he doesn't have the right embroidery on his saddle."

Mr. Schneider points out that, at 5-foot-7, he is exactly the same height as Napoleon. He also shares the French leader's distinctive nose. Napoleon "was born in 1769 and I was born in 1969," he says. "All of this makes my job easier."

But Mr. Schneider has been hampered by legal problems. He currently spends two days a week in jail near Williamsburg after pleading guilty to driving under the influence in 2008. He has taken 2013 off from traveling to Europe for re-enactments.

The American hopes to return in 2014, in time to be exiled to Elba. Napoleon was sent to the island off the Italian coast in 1814 after his army was defeated and he abdicated. Mr. Samson says he also wants to be exiled to Elba.

In 1815 Napoleon returned to France, landing at Golfe-Juan, and marched the length of the country building support. Both Mr. Samson and Mr. Schneider would like to do that too. In June 2015 one of them will square off against an allied re-enactment army, celebrating the one led by the British Duke of Wellington and the Prussian general Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher.

"I am not going to play the prude little girl. I want this," Mr. Samson says. If Mr. Schneider gets the job, "I am going to apply for the role of Wellington," he adds. (Wellington is currently played by a New Zealander).

After 2015, Mr. Schneider says, he would like to visit the remote Island of St. Helena, where Napoleon eventually died in exile.

Mr. Samson will go a step further. He will effectively exile himself from the role, refusing to ever dress up as Napoleon again. "I just wouldn't be credible otherwise."

Write to Max Colchester at