Fanny Janauschek

Francesca Romana Magdalena Janauschek (July 20, 1829 – November 28, 1904) was a Czech born stage actress.[2][3][4]

Fanny Janauschek
Born
Franziska Romana Magdalena Janauschek

July 20, 1829
Prague, Austrian Empire
DiedNovember 28, 1904 (aged 75)
Amityville, New York, United States
Other namesMadame Fanny Janauschek
OccupationActress
Years active1867 - 1904
Spouse(s)Baron Frederick J. Pillot,1854 (died 1884)[1]

Biography

Francesa (Franziska) Janauschek was born on July 20, 1829 in Prague. Her mother worked as a theatre laundress and her father as a tailor.[5]

She came to America in 1867 and first performed at the Academy of Music, New York City, on October 9, 1867 managed by Max Maretzek. She spoke no English, only German and often worked with all English speaking casts.[6] In three years time since arriving in the US she mastered enough English dialect to communicate with American audiences and decided to make America her home. Some of her performances, especially Medea, were compared to the revered Italian tragedienne Adelaide Ristori. She became famous acting in great Shakespearean parts and other famous parts. She was particularly noted for playing Meg Merrilies, a role Charlotte Cushman made famous. In 1873, Janauschek starred in an adaptation of Charles Dickens's Bleak House, in which she played both the heroine Lady Dedlock and her murderous French maid Hortense, demonstrating Janauschek's range as an actress.[7] She played this double role in touring companies for decades. In 1900 Janauschek had a stroke and was paralyzed. She died in 1904 partially blind and bankrupt. Friends and actors gathered a collection to have her buried properly in Evergreen Cemetery, Brooklyn New York.[8][9] Janauschek had no known offspring.

References
  1. Highbeam Research, Fanny Janauschek
  2. Fanny Januschek; North American Theatre Online
  3. European Immigrant Women in the United States: A Biographical Dictionary ; edited by Judy Barrett Litoff and Judith McDonnell, c.1994
  4. The Oxford Companion to the American Theatre page378 2nd Edition by Gerald Bordman c.1992 Oxford University Press
  5. Knepler, Henry (1971). Notable American women, 1607-1950: a biographical dictionary. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. pp. 271–272.
  6. Great Actors & Actresses of the American Stage in Historic Photographs page 10 c.1983 edited by Stanley Appelbaum
  7. Bolton, H. Philip (1987). Dickens Dramatized. Boston: G. K. Hall & Co. pp. 349–352. ISBN 978-0816189243.
  8. Famous Actors and Actresses on the American Stage by William C. Young c. 1975 vol 1 pg.568
  9. The Oxford Companion To American Theatre... Gerald Bordman
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