Marcelle Yrven

Marcelle Yrven or simply Yrven (1877-1954), was a French stage and screen actress and operetta singer. She was popular in spicy plays such as 'Le Jumeau' (1903) and 'Nuit de Noces' (1904). In the 1930s she played supporting roles in several films.


French postcard by ND. Photo: H. Manuel. Marcelle Yrven in the play 'La Nuit de Noces' ('The Wedding Night', 1904) by Henri Kéroul and Albert Barré.


French postcard by S.I.P., no. 920/... Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.


French postcard by L.O.D., no. 248. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.


French postcard. Photo: Henri Manuel. Caption: Folies Dramatiques.

Spicy plays

Marcelle Yrven was born Marthe Marie Aglaé Wary in 1877 in Paris.

She started her stage career at the Théâtre du Châtelet in 'La Poudre de Perlinpinpin' (brothers Cogniard, 1898) and the operetta 'Le Petit Chaperon rouge' (Little Red Riding Hood, 1900).

Between 1903 and 1907 she was popular at the Théâtre des Folies-Dramatiques in spicy plays such as 'Le Jumeau' (1903) and 'Nuit de Noces' (1904) by Henri Kéroul and Albert Barré in whose plays she often performed. She also acted in 'Volcan d' Amour' (1905) by Michel Carré who would become a prolific film director at Pathé.

In 1907 Yrven moved to the Théâtre du Palais-Royal, where she acted in plays by George Berr and others. In the early 1910s, she worked at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin and Théâtre de la Renaissance.

Yrven would continue to act on stage in the 1920s and 1930s, though less frequently.


French postcard. Caption: Folies-Dramatiques. Urven is wearing a liotard.


French postcard by S.I.P., no. 854-14. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris. Caption: (Théâtre de l') Athénée. Sent by mail in Besançon in 1905.


French postcard by ND Phot., no. 210. Photo: H. Manuel. Caption: Folies-Dramatiques.

Actress and feminist

Marcelle Yrven was visible as herself in Henri Diamant-Berger's actualities compilation film Paris pendant la guerre (1916). In the 1920s, she acted in Un fil à la patte (1925) by Robert Saidreau.

IMDb and Wikipedia confuse her with Marcelle Irven, who with her sister Geneviève had a popular (nude) dance act in the 1920s, performing as Les Soeurs Irvin. and both performed in the silent films J'ai tué (Roger Lion, 1924) and Le Tourbillon de Paris (Julien Duvivier, 1928). The sisters already performed in films when they were young.

From 1935 to 1937, Marcelle Yrven had nine supporting parts in French sound cinema, when she was in her fifties. Examples are Train de plaisir (Léo Joannon, 1936), starring Frédéric Duvallès, and La Belle Équipe (Julien Duvivier, 1936) starring Jean Gabin and Charles Vanel. She had her last parts in the Italo-French coproduction Angélica/Rosa di sangue (Jean Choux, 1939), starring Viviane Romance and Georges Flamant, and Fièvres (Jean Delannoy, 1942), starring Tino Rossi.

In the latter film, Yrven played an old actress, something she had become in real life too. Marcelle Yrven died in 1954 in Paris. She was the wife of songwriter and playwright Charles-Alexis Carpentier (1879-1929).

In 1914 Yrven published the book 'La comédienne et le féminisme', in which she pleaded for a thorough literary and cultural education for women in theatre. Bernard Quaritch: "Stage and film actress Marcelle Yrven (1877–1954) here argues that an actress’s beauty and education are not mutually exclusive. For Yrven, feminism is ‘when women want to rise up, not to be inferior to men but to equal or even surpass them, drawing upon their intelligence, their education, their individual qualities, their activity, and their curiosity’ (p. 9 trans.). Citing Colette as a prime example of a femme de lettres who achieved great success on the stage, she urges young women to swap cloak-and-dagger tales and feuilletons for Moliere, Racine, Corneille, and Hugo. Once the work of these ‘cardinal authors’ has been mastered, the aspiring actress should read widely, turning to anthologies for a variety of poetry and prose and subsequently turning to masterpieces of French drama."


French postcard. Photo: Manuel.


French postcard by V.P., Paris. Caption: Folies Dramatiques.


French postcard. Photo: H. Manuel, Paris. Caption: Folies Dramatiques.


French postcard by MVB, no. 1978. Caption: Folies-Dramatiques.

Sources: Les Archives du spectacle, Bernard Quaritch Ltd. (French), Wikipedia (French) and IMDb. With additional information by Marlene Pilaete.