Colette Colette Colette (; Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, 28 January 1873 – 3 August 1954) was a French mime, actress, journalist and novelist, nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948. Colette was widely known for her 1944 novella "Gigi" (1944), which subsequently was the basis for the film and Lerner and Loewe stage production of the same name. The writer was the subject of numerous biographies, songs, and films, including 2018's "Colette". Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette was born on January 28, 1873, to war hero and tax collector Jules-Joseph Colette and his wife Adèle Eugénie Sidonie ("Sido"), "née" Landoy, in the village of
Hyacinthe-Gabrielle Roland Hyacinthe-Gabrielle Roland Hyacinthe-Gabrielle Wellesley, Marchioness Wellesley (1766 – 7 November 1816), formerly Hyacinthe Gabrielle Fagan and also known as Hyacinthe Gabrielle Fagan, was a French actress who became the mistress, and later the wife, of Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley of Norragh. She was born as Hyacinthe-Gabrielle Roland in Paris, the daughter of Pierre Roland and Hyacinthe Gabrielle Varis. Wellesley, the son of Garret Wesley, 1st Earl of Mornington, met Roland at the Palais Royal where she was an actress. She spoke no English, and they lived together for some years without marrying. He succeeded as 2nd Earl of Mornington