Magdeleine-Marie Desgarcins

Background

Magdeleine-Marie was born at Mont-Dauphin on the 23rd of May 1769.

Career

In her short career Magdeleine-Marie became one of the greatest of French tragédiennes, the associate of Talma, with whom she nearly always played. Her début at the Comédie Française occurred on the 24th of May 1788, in Bajazet, with such success that she was at once made sociétaire. She was one of the actresses who left the Comédie Française in 1791 for the house in the rue Richelieu, soon to become the Théâtre de la République, and there her triumphs were no less—in King Lear, Othello, La Harpe’s Mélanie et Virginie, &c. Her health, however, failed, and she died insane, in Paris.

Achievements

• Desgarcins was regarded as a tremendous actress of her time for playing tragic roles at the theather.