French Stage and Silent Film Actress. She is most famous for her role of Catherine, in Sardou’s play “Madame Sans-Gene” (1893). Born Gabrielle Charlotte Reju, the daughter of a French actor, in Paris, France, she naturally became interested in the stage at an early age. She soon became a student of famed actor, Regnier, at the Paris Conservatoire, and in 1874, took Second Prize for comedy. The next year, she made her professional debut as an actress. Her first major success was in Henri Meilhac’s play “Ma Camarade” (1883), in which she expressed her emotional sympathy to gain great audience appeal. She soon became known as an emotional actress, capable of showing her ability to appeal to the common person in the audience, in such plays as “Décor,” “Ma Cousine,” “Amoureuse,” and “Germinie Lacerteux.” In 1892, she married Maurice Ford, director of the Paris Vaudeville Theater, but the marriage fell apart in 1905, while she was touring Quebec, where her French language naturally fit in. In 1906, she appeared in New York City, NY, where she performed her most famous role, of Catherine, in the play “Madame Sans-Gene.” Her performance in “Madame Sans-Gene” made her as famous in both the United States and England as in her native Paris. In 1906, she also opened the Theater Rejane in Paris, where she continued to act as well as manage the theater. She had continual success in later plays “Zaza” and “La Passerelle,” in which she selected the roles which played on her strong points of her acting ability (vivacity and animated _expression). She successfully transferred her acting abilities to the movie screen; in 1911, she reprised her role of Catherine, in the silent film, “Madame Sans-Gene.” Retiring in 1915, she died in Paris, France five years later. (bio by: Kit and Morgan Benson)