[1] Gérard began acting in her teens, with her Paris debut in 1888, in the opera Isoline.

She was active on the Paris stage,[2] including a role in La Montagne Enchantée (1897) with Jane Hading.

[3] She was a popular subject of souvenir postcards, cigarette cards,[4][5] and cabinet cards, and Italian artist Giovanni Boldini made a pastel portrait of her.

[6] As "Lucy Mareil", she appeared in at least a dozen French silent films, including Blessure d'amour (1916), C'est pour les orphelins!

(1917), Les leçons de chant de Rigadin (1918), Madame et son filleul (1919), Chouquette et son as (1919), Les cinqs gentlemen maudits (1920), L'empereur des pauvres (1921), La flamme (1922), and Petit Ange et son pantin (1923).