Marie Dorval

Her father, Joseph-Charles Delaunay was an actor who happened upon a traveling acting company where he met Marie Boudais, the daughter of the troupe manager.

[1] By 1813, they joined the itinerant acting troupes run by Johann Ross in Paris, where the young Marie met Alain Dorval and married him in 1814.

The reviews were not pleasant after this role, but Dorval was able to in November 1818 gain access to the Paris’ Conservatoire, the teaching organ of the Comédie-Française, again by Piccini's intersession and monthly pension for her.

[1] 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 ("Thirty years, or the life of a player.").

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.

In January 1833, female writer George Sand met Marie Dorval after the former wrote the actress a letter of appreciation following one of her performances.

There must be a sort of paralysis in my brain which prevents what I feel from ever finding a form through which it can achieve communication...When she appeared upon the stage, with her drooping figure, her listless gait, her sad and penetrating glance...I can say only that it was as though I were looking at an embodied spirit.

Likewise, Count Alfred de Vigny, Dorval's lover from 1831 to 1838, warned the actress to stay away from Sand, whom he referred to as "that damned lesbian".