Marie Kalff
Marie Kalff was a Dutch-born actress who lived most of her life in Paris (1874–1959). Born in Amsterdam, she was the daughter of Antonius Kalff, a bank director and merchant, and Ellegonda Rutgers van der Loeff. She spent part of her childhood in Java before moving to Paris, where she acted at the Théâtre Antoine-Simone Berriau and the Théâtre de l’Œuvre. She appeared on Paris stages from 1904 to 1929 and was especially known for performing Paul Claudel’s plays; she was also Claudel’s confidante. Her costumes were admired and featured in theatre magazines.
Kalff acted in three films: two silent works by Émile Couzinet—La poupée japonaise (1911) and L’auberge sanglante (1913)—and a sound film, Le Bout de la route (1949). In 1950 she traveled to California with her husband for his lectures on French drama. The Dutch painter Kees van Dongen painted her portrait in 1905, titled Le peignoir rose; it later sold at Christie's in 2014 for €169,500.
She married French playwright Henri-René Lenormand; he died in 1951. Kalff died in Paris in 1959 at age 85, leaving a collection of papers to the Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 23:56 (CET).