Mathilde Rupp (27 March 1879 – 11 April 1932), known by the stage name Tilly Bébé, was an Austrian circus performer.

Against her father's wishes, she left a position in a law firm to work with snakes in the Vienna Vivarium [de].

[1] Her father, Franz Xaver Rupp, was a greengrocer and her grandfather was the teacher and composer Ambros Rieder [de].

[12] Due to the erotic overtones in her act, she attracted press wherever she traveled and experienced the kind of fame that Mae West would have a decade later.

[10] In 1901, she trained in Bonn, Germany at the Tierpark (animal park) with Contessa X, the stage name of the daughter of Joseph-Bertrand Abadie, who not only taught her how to work with lions but, intending to retire, sold Rupp part of her pride.

[citation needed] Due to her diminutive stature, Bébé performed dressed in the garb of a little girl, using her doll-like appearance to contrast with the ferocity of her pride of lions.

A master at garnering publicity, she used the press to enhance her stage persona, with stories of her demure nature and her kindness to animals.

Despite this incident, Bébé was soon engaged in a show at the Cirque Medrano in Paris, [16] and, by the end of the year, was a regular feature at the Rembrandt-Theatre in Amsterdam.

[4] Performing at the Belgian Circus Krembser, at the climax of her act she put her head inside a lion's mouth before carrying him out of the arena on her shoulders.

[10][18] That year, it was reported that she had been mauled by a lion which laid its paws on her and was about to bite her throat during a performance in the Nymphenburger Volksgarten [de] in Munich.

[16] By 1930, it was reported that only three of the women who had previously worked in circuses with predators were still employed — Bébé, Mabel Stark, and a woman who performed as "Miss Texas".