Virginie Déjazet

Virginie Déjazet, by Ludwig Richter

Pauline Virginie Déjazet (30 August 1798 – 1 December 1875) was a French actress.

Life

Déjazet was born in Paris in 1798, and made her first appearance on the stage at the age of five. It was not until 1820, when she began her seven years' connexion with the recently founded Gymnase, that she won her triumphs in soubrette and "Breeches roles", which came to be known as "Dejazets." From 1828 she played at the Théatre des Nouveautés for three years, then at the Théâtre des Variétés, and finally she became manager, with her son, of the Folies-Déjazet, later renamed the Théâtre Déjazet. Here, at the age of sixty-five she still had success in youthful parts, especially in a number of Sardou's earlier plays, previously unacted.^[1] She retired in 1868, but then took a touring company to London's Opera Comique in October 1870.^[2]

She died in 1875 in Belleville, Paris and she was buried in division 81 of Père Lachaise Cemetery.

References

1.  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Virginie Déjazet". Encyclopædia Britannica 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 938. Endnote: See Duval's Virginie Déjazet (1876).
2. The Assault on The Opera Comique accessed 6 Dec 2007