figurante

All this was true, except about the French figurante.

From Men's Wives by William Makepeace Thackeray

Their malignant modesty does not deserve the respect of an intelligent figurante.

From Punchinello, Volume 1, No. 06, May 7, 1870 by Various

She was a bookbinder's accountant all the day, and in the evening she was a figurante at one of the theatres.

From My First Book: the experiences of Walter Besant, James Payn, W. Clark Russell, Grant Allen, Hall Caine, George R. Sims, Rudyard Kipling, A. Conan Doyle, M.E. Braddon, F.W. Robinson, H. Rider Haggard, R.M. Ballantyne, I. Zangwill, Morley Roberts, David Christie Murray, Marie Corelli, Jerome K. Jerome, John Strange Winter, Bret Harte, "Q.", Robert Buchanan, Robert Louis Stevenson, with an introduction by Jerome K. Jerome. by Various

The poor figurante must devote years of incessant toil to her profitless task before she can shine in it. 

From Self help; with illustrations of conduct and perseverance by Samuel Smiles

The young figurante frequently extended her arms and threw herself on her knees, as if in invocation of some unseen power.

From Celebrated Women Travellers of the Nineteenth Century by W. H. Davenport Adams