Marie Dorval was a French actress.

Early life

Born Marie Thomase Amélie Delauney; abandoned by her father when she was five years old, and losing her mother to tuberculosis

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

 while still a teenager, at age of 15 she married Alain Dorval, a much older actor, who died five years later. The couple had two children.

Stage career

Marie began acting on stage in earnest following her husband's death. She did not see great success until the age of 29, when she starred in the French play Trente ans, ou la vie d'un joueur. At the age of 31, Marie married journalist Jean-Toussaint Merle.

In January, 1833, female writer George Sand

George Sand

Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, later Baroness Dudevant , best known by her pseudonym George Sand , was a French novelist and memoirist.-Life:...

 met Marie Dorval after the former wrote the actress a letter of appreciation following one of her performances. The two women became involved in an intimate friendship, and were rumored to have become lesbian

Lesbian

Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...

 lovers. This has since been debated, and has never been verified. Theater critic Gustave Planche

Jean Baptiste Gustave Planche

Jean Baptiste Gustave Planche , was a French art and literary critic.Already in his time as a medical student, Planche frequented artistic circles. This did nothing to promote the success of his studies...

 reportedly warned Sand to stay away from Dorval. Likewise, Count Alfred de Vigny

Alfred de Vigny

Alfred Victor de Vigny was a French poet, playwright, and novelist.-Life:Alfred de Vigny was born in Loches into an aristocratic family...

, Dorval's lover, warned the actress to stay away from Sand, whom he referred to as "that damned lesbian". Popular writers from that time, such as Théophile Gautier

Théophile Gautier

Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, art critic and literary critic....

 and Honoré de Balzac

Honoré de Balzac

Honoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of short stories and novels collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the 1815 fall of Napoleon....

, capitalized on the rumors.

Whatever the truth in their relationship, Sand and Dorval would remain close friends for the remainder of Dorval's lifetime. In 1834, Dorval starred in Vigny's play Chatterton, and in 1840 she played the lead in a play written by Sand, entitled Cosima, and the two women collaborated on the script. However, the play was not well received, and was cancelled after only seven showings.

She had many successes that did follow, especially in popular productions at the Odéon Theatre

Odéon

The Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe is one of France's six national theatres.It is located at 2 rue Corneille in the 6th arrondissement of Paris on the left bank of the Seine, next to the Luxembourg Garden...

. Her last two major appearances were in François Ponsard

François Ponsard

François Ponsard , was a French dramatist, poet and author and was a member of the Académie française.-Literary career:...

's Lucrèce (1843) and in Adolphe d'Ennery

Adolphe d'Ennery

Adolphe Philippe d'Ennery or Dennery was a French Jewish dramatist and novelist.Born in Paris, his real surname was Philippe...

's Marie-Jeanne, ou la femme du peuple (Marie-Jeanne, Or the Woman of the People, 1845).

Her career began going downhill with a shift in fashion and the public's desire for younger actresses, and she began traveling with a troupe of actors doing small shows around the countryside. By the age of 51, her health was failing due to her long life of travel and shows, and she sank into depression following the death of one of her grandchildren. Sand assumed the financial support for Dorval's surviving grandchildren following Marie's death in 1849.