About Musidora
Jeanne Roques (23 February 1889 – 11 December 1957), known professionally as Musidora, was a French actress, film director, screenwriter, playwright and novelist. A major figure of French silent cinema, she became internationally known for portraying Irma Vep in Louis Feuillade's serial Les Vampires (1915–1916), and Diana Monti in Judex (1917). Musidora was one of the earliest "vamps" in cinema, and was later embraced by surrealist writers and filmmakers as a cultural icon. She was also among the first women to direct films, also screenwriting and producing several features in the 1910s and 1920s. == Life and career == === Early life === Jeanne Roques was born in Paris to the music composer and theorist of socialism Jacques Roques (1852–1931) and the painter and feminist Adèle Clémence Porchez (1855–1928), who instilled in her a love of literature. Her paternal grandmother was of Spanish descent. She began her career at an early age, encouraged by her mother. She wrote her first novel at the age of fifteen, she painted and sculpted, attending Emmanuel Frémiet's school for three years. Jeanne adopted the stage name "Musidora" (Greek for "gift of the muses"), after the heroine in Théophile Gautier's novel Fortunio, and began performing in cabarets, music halls, revues and plays in Paris in 1910, gaining recognition in Aristide Bruant's play La Loupiotte, where she played the part of La Môme Liquette (The Shirt Chick). Her first success was two years later at the Bataclan theatre, in the revue Ça grise, where she shared the stage with Colette, who became a lifelong friend.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.