Renée Dahon (1893–1969) was a French actress.

Personal life

Dahon was born on 18 December 1893. She was described as short (around five feet tall) and slim. Following an eight-year-long affair, Dahon married playwright

Maurice Maeterlinck Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck (29 August 1862 – 6 May 1949), also known as Count (or Comte) Maeterlinck from 1932, was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who was Flemish but wrote in French. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in ...

at Chateau Neuf-de-Contes in 1919. In the early 1930s, Dahon gave birth to a stillborn child. In 1940, Maeterlinck and Dahon were forced to flee their home in Paris with her parents due to the advance of the Germans. They arrived in the United States in July 1940, and resettled in New York City, moving into an apartment in the Hotel Esplanade. After the

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

, they were able to return to their home "Orlamonde" in

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard dialect, Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department in France. The Nice urban unit, agg ...

in 1947. Despite their age difference, friends reported them to be devoted to each other. Dahon died on 8 December 1969.

Career

Renée Dahon was a popular actress in Paris. She became known at age 18 for her role as Tyltyl in '' The Blue Bird''.

Georgette Leblanc Georgette Leblanc (8 February 1869, Rouen – 27 October 1941, Le Cannet) was a French operatic soprano, actress, author, and the sister of novelist Maurice Leblanc. She became particularly associated with the works of Jules Massenet and w ...

, Maurice Maeterlinck's then-partner, selected and coached her for the role. She also acted in several films.

References

External links

Still shot
of Renée Dahon (Countess Maeterlinck) from a 1959 interview (via Europeana)
Photograph of group of writers
including Maurice Maeterlinck and Renée Maeterlinck, from 1938 (via University of Florida Digital Collections) {{DEFAULTSORT:Dahon, Renee 1893 births 1969 deaths French actresses 20th-century French women