Andrée Mégard (born Marie Adélaïde Alexandrine Chamonal, 1869–1952), was a French actress and stage beauty.

Early life

Marie Adélaïde Alexandrine Chamonal was born in 1869, in Saint-Amour, in the

Jura Mountains The Jura Mountains ( ) are a sub-alpine mountain range a short distance north of the Western Alps and mainly demarcate a long part of the French–Swiss border. While the Jura range proper (" folded Jura", ) is located in France and Switzerla ...

. Her parents were "well-off peasants" who apprenticed her to an aunt who ran a dry good store; she ran away from the aunt at fifteen, and landed alone in Paris.

Career

Mégard worked as an artists' model as a young woman in Paris, especially for artist

Auguste Toulmouche Auguste Toulmouche (21 September 1829 – 16 October 1890) was a French painter known for his luxurious genre paintings of upper middle class Parisian women in domestic scenes. Biography Auguste Toulmouche was born in Nantes to Émile Toulmouc ...

. She was on the Paris stage from 1896 to 1925, appearing in shows including Shakepearean tragedies, comedies, and plays directed by her husband,

Firmin Gémier Firmin Gémier (; 1869–1933) was a French actor and director. Internationally, he is most famous for originating the role of Père Ubu in Alfred Jarry, Alfred Jarry’s play ''Ubu Roi''. He is known as the principal architect of the popular theat ...

. She played the love interest, Roxane, in a 1913 revival of

Edmond Rostand Edmond Eugène Alexis Rostand (, , ; 1 April 1868 – 2 December 1918) was a French poet and dramatist. He is associated with neo-romanticism and is known best for his 1897 play ''Cyrano de Bergerac''. Rostand's romantic plays contrasted with th ...

's ''

Cyrano de Bergerac Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac ( , ; 6 March 1619 – 28 July 1655) was a French novelist, playwright, epistolarian, and duelist. A bold and innovative author, his work was part of the libertine literature of the first half of the 17th ce ...

'', while she was having an affair with Rostand himself. She starred in a stage adaptation of ''

Anna Karenina ''Anna Karenina'' ( rus, Анна Каренина, p=ˈanːə kɐˈrʲenʲɪnə) is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published in book form in 1878. Tolstoy called it his first true novel. It was initially released in serial in ...

'' in Paris in 1907. In 1908 she knocked herself unconscious on stage during an emotional scene. She appeared in one silent film, ''La tour de Nesle'' (1909). Mégard was considered "tall, graceful, and distinguished looking." Her hairstyles and the designs of her costumes, hats, and gowns were reported in detail, internationally, often with photographs or drawings showing their features. She was especially known for wearing the creations of Redfern, the English design house. A New York writer in 1906 declared of the Paris theatre scene that "Even the critics themselves, disdainful of the pieces they have had to comment upon, turn their clever pens to the question of clothes." "Madame Mégard has for many years back been one of the recognized beauties of the French stage, and as such as earned more than one ''succés de jolie femme''," commented a London writer in 1907, "but it is only recently that her power as an actress has been fully realized."

Personal life

Andrée Mégard married actor and director Firmin Gémier. She was an enthusiastic automobile driver by 1909; "There is no more intrepid 'chauffeuse' on the white roads of France," noted one report, after she and her sister were injured in a motoring accident in Brittany. Mégard died in 1952.

References

External links

*
A sketch of Mégard by Albert de Belleroche
circa 1900.
A hand-colored Reutlinger photograph of Mégard
from a 1906 publication, at

Getty Images Getty Images Holdings, Inc. (stylized as gettyimages) is a visual media company and supplier of stock images, editorial photography, video, and music for business and consumers, with a library of over 477 million assets. It targets three mark ...

.
A Reutlinger photograph of Mégard
from a 1908 publication, at Getty Images.
A hand-colored Reutlinger photograph of Mégard
from a 1912 publication, at Getty Images. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mégard, Andrée 1869 births 1952 deaths French actresses People from Jura (department) Actresses from Bourgogne-Franche-Comté