CĂ©cile Sorel
Acting
CĂ©line Ămilie Seurre (7 September 1873 in Paris â 3 September 1966 in Trouville-sur-Mer), known as CĂ©cile Sorel or the Comtesse de SĂ©gur by marriage, was a French comic actress. She enjoyed great popularity and was known for her extravagant costumes. Sorel was attracted to the theater at an early age, studying with Louis-ArsĂšne Delaunay and Marie Favart. In 1899, she began her career at the OdĂ©on and then, in 1901, became a member of the ComĂ©die-Française, where she specialized in playing a stock character known as the "grande coquette". She was especially well known for her portrayal of CĂ©limĂšne in The Misanthrope. In 1904, she became the 339th "SociĂ©taire de la ComĂ©die-Française" and remained with the theater until 1933. Although long engaged to Whitney Warren, an American architect who was related to the Vanderbilts, she eventually married the Comte de SĂ©gur-Lamoignon, great grandson of the famous Comtesse de SĂ©gur, who acted under the name Guillaume de Sax. They were sometimes mocked as "beauty and the beast" and were separated after fifteen years, but she kept the title of "Comtesse" for the rest of her life. In 1909, she had the starring role in La Tosca, a film by AndrĂ© Calmettes and Charles Le Bargy. Her next film role did not come until 1937, when she played an aged courtesan in The Pearls of the Crown by Sacha Guitry. Four years later, she essentially played herself in a sketch comedy called Les Petits riens, written by and starring Yves Mirande. In 1944, she barely escaped the bombing that destroyed the ThĂ©Ăątre-Français in Rouen. In 1950, she underwent a "conversion" and, following the lead of the original Comtesse de SĂ©gur, took her vows as a Third-order Franciscan. She adopted the name "Soeur CĂ©cile de l'Enfant-JĂ©sus" and devoted her time to writing. A television documentary of her career was produced in 1965. She died of complications from a fractured hip, suffered in a fall at her rented chĂąteau on the French coast, and was buried in the CimetiĂšre du Montparnasse. She was painted by François Flameng and her likeness appears in a fresco by Charles Hoffbauer on the ceiling of the cupola at the ChĂąteau d'Artigny in Montbazon, once owned by François Coty. A college in the town of MĂ©riel is named after her. Source: Article "CĂ©cile Sorel" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
