Dorziat, Gabrielle (1886–1979)
Dorziat, Gabrielle (1886–1979)
French actress. Born Gabrielle Sigrist Moppert on January 15, 1886, in Epernay, Marne, France; died in 1979; educated in Paris; studied for the stage with Mlle A. Gerlaut and at the Paris Conservatoire.
In 1900, Gabrielle Dorziat made her first stage appearance at the Parc Theatre in Brussels as Marianne in Molière's L'Avare. She performed at the Gymnase in Paris (1901–05); at the Vaudeville (1905–07); and at the Sarah Bernhardt Theatre, portraying Yvonne de Chazeau in Maîtresse de Piano (1907). Dorziat made her London debut in 1904 in the title role of Antoinette Sabrier, and her New York debut as Marina de Dasetta in The Hawk in 1914. Generally typed as the intimidating royal or aristocrat, Dorziat made approximately 70 French, English, and American films, including L'Infante a la Rose (1922), Samson (1936), Le Mensonge de Nina Petrovna (1937), La Fin du Jour (1939), De Mayerling a Sarajevo (Mayerling to Sarajevo, 1940), Monsieur Vincent (1947), Ruy-Blas (1948), Manon (1949), So Little Time (English, 1952), Little Boy Lost (U.S., 1953), Madame Du Barry (1954), Mitsou (1956), Gigot (U.S. 1962), and Germinal (1963). In 1936, she appeared as Elizabeth of Bavaria (1837–1898), empress of Austria, in the film Mayerling.