Colon, Jenny (1808-1842)

Colon, Jenny

ACTOR, SINGER (FRANCE)

BORN 5 Nov 1808, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Pas-de-Calais - DIED 5 Jun 1842, Paris: 17 rue Neuve des Mathurins
BIRTH NAME Colon, Marguerite
CAUSE OF DEATH tuberculosis
GRAVE LOCATION Paris: Cimetière de Montmartre, 20 Avenue Rachel (division 22, en bas de l'escalier Samson, près de l'avenue du Tunnel)

Jenny Colon was the daughter of the comedians Jean Colon and Marie-Anne Dejean-Leroy. She debuted at the Opéra-Comique in 1822 in "Les Deux Savoyards". In England she appeared with the actor Pierre-Chérie Lafont and she married him in 1829 at Gretna Green in Scotland. Back in Paris they cordially decided that their marriage had been a mistake and it was subsequently annulled. oweverr, they had a son, Rodolphe Lafont, and Lafont recognized him.

She returned to the Opéra-Comique in 1836. In that year she met the poet Gérard de Nerval, who had been in love with her for a long time. She was a great inspiration to him. The banker William Hope (1802-1855) was interested in her as well. Her brief romance with De Nerval ended when she suddenly married the flutist Louis-Gabriel Leplus (1807-1874) on 11 April 1838 in Paris.

Since 1831 she had suffered from tuberculosis and her death in 1842 from this disease at the age of 33 was a great shock to De Nerval. She was buried at the Montmartre Cemetery.

Family
• Husband: Leplus, Gabriel (1838-1842, Paris)

Related persons
• performed with Lafont, Pierre-Chéri
• has a connection with Nerval, Gérard de

Events

21/12/1836

Premiere of Auber's "L'ambassadrice" at the Théâtre des Nouveautés in Paris. The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe and Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and it was performed by the Opéra-Comique. Performers included Théodore-Étienne-François Moreau-Sainti, Marie-Julie Halligner, Laure Cinti-Damoreau, Jenny Colon and Joseph-Antoine-Charles Couderc. [Auber, Daniel][Cinti-Damoreau, Laure][Halligner, Marie-Julie][Scribe, Eugène]