Lange, Anne Françoise Elizabeth (1772–1816)

French actress. Born in Genoa, Italy, on September 17, 1772; died on May 25, 1816; daughter of a musician and an actress at the Comédie Italienne; married the son of a rich Belgian named Simons.

Anne Françoise Elizabeth Lange made her first stage appearance at Tours in 1781 and had a successful début at the Comédie Française in 1788 in L'Écossaise and L'Oracle. In the fomenting stages of the French Revolution, the theater was rechristened the Théâtre de la Nation (July 21, 1789), because of public criticism led by La-Harpe of "the hauty greediness of this usurping troupe" brought about by too much royal privilege. When a dispute between patriots versus royalists broke out between members of the company, Lange followed patriot François Talma and others in 1792 to help found the Théâtre de la République Rue Richelieu. But Lange returned after a few months to the Comédie Française. Here her talent and beauty gave her an enormous success in François de Neuchâteau's Paméla, but the play, deemed counter-revolutionary, brought down the wrath of the Committee of Safety upon the theater, and it was closed on September 3, 1793. With the author and other members of the cast, Lange was arrested and imprisoned. After the 9th Thermidor (July 27, 1794), she rejoined her comrades at the Feydeau, but retired on December 16, 1797, reappearing only for a few performances in 1807. Lange died on May 25, 1816.