Cécile Sorel

In 1899, she began her career at the Odéon and then, in 1901, became a member of the Comédie-Française, where she specialized in playing a stock character known as the "grande coquette".

She was implicated by rumour in the death (allegedly following sexual activity) of the President of the Republic, Felix Faure in February 1899, although the woman was more widely believed to be Faure's mistress, Marguerite Steinheil,[1][2] Although long engaged to Whitney Warren, an American architect who was related to the Vanderbilts, she eventually married the Comte de Ségur-Lamoignon, great grandson of the famous Comtesse de Ségur, who acted under the name Guillaume de Sax.

In 1909, she had the starring role in La Tosca, a film by André Calmettes and Charles Le Bargy.

Four years later, she essentially played herself in a sketch comedy called Les Petits riens, written by and starring Yves Mirande.

She died, four days before her 93rd birthday, of complications from a fractured hip, suffered in a fall at her rented château on the French coast, and was buried in the Cimetière du Montparnasse.