figurante

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

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

Her listener had drifted from attention to the soft caressing tones of the one time Parisian figurante, whose devotion was so apparent and whose nature required a certain amount of demonstration.

From The Bondwoman by Marah Ellis Ryan

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

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

For Bessy is to the procession of Plough Monday what the leading figurante is to the opera or ballet, and dances about as gracefully as the hippopotami described by Dr. Livingstone.

From A Righte Merrie Christmasse The Story of Christ-Tide by Arthur C. Behrend