Gilda Varesi

Gilda Varesi (September 28, 1887 – May 27, 1965), also known as Gilda Varesi Archibald, was an Italian-born actress and playwright.

Gilda Varesi, from a 1921 publication.

Early life

Gilda Varesi was born in Milan, and adopted as the daughter of opera singer Elena Boccabadati Varesi.[1] Her maternal grandparents Felice Varesi and Cecilia Boccabadati Gazzudo were also opera singers. Luigia Boccabadati was Gilda's great-grandmother. Gilda Varesi, who was named for a character in Verdi's Rigoletto,[2] moved to Chicago as a child, with her family.[3]

Career

Varesi started on stage in Chicago, with the Ben Greet Players, before joining Helena Modjeska's troupe,[4] then working with Minnie Maddern Fiske in Salvation Nell (1908) and Little Italy.[5] She toured as the lead in War Brides in 1915.[6] She covered John Barrymore's role for ten performances of The Jest when he was ill in 1920.[7][8] She recalled her days as an understudy in her later work, saying, "No one ever lost a position by giving a lift to someone else. Remembering how helpful understudying was to me, I always try to give my own understudy at least one chance to appear publicly."[9]

Varesi co-wrote (with Dolly Byrne) and starred in Enter Madame,[10] a comedy about an opera singer based on her mother,[11] who died months before the show opened on Broadway in 1920.[12] Based on this performance, critic Maude Sperry Turner called Varesi, "the most gifted actress on Broadway,"[13] and Alexander Woollcott declared her "a first-rate actress, with a distinct tragic power and an inborn capacity to send chills up and down your spine."[14]

Enter Madame was adapted for the screen twice, as a silent film in 1922, starring Clara Kimball Young and Elliott Dexter, and as a sound picture in 1935, with Cary Grant and Elissa Landi. It was also included in The Best Plays of 1920-1921 (1921).[15]

She appeared in two silent films, The Man of Mystery (1917) and Romance (1920, now lost).

Personal life

Gilda Varesi was introduced to English lawyer John Gordon Archibald by actress Doris Keane and playwright Alfred Sutro in London.[16] They married in 1922.[17] She died in 1965, aged 77 years, in London.

References
  1. "Elena Varesi" Musical Courier (June 24, 1920): 34.
  2. "Who's Who on Stage" New York Times (April 27, 1919): 50.
  3. "Minute Visits in the Wings" New York Times (January 24, 1915): X7.
  4. "Modjeska Bequeathed Role" New York Times (June 10, 1909): 7.
  5. "Gilda Varesi in Playlet" New York Times (May 22, 1912): 13.
  6. Cardinal, Agnes; Turner, Elaine; Tylee, Claire M. (2013). War Plays by Women: An International Anthology. Routledge. p. 13. ISBN 9781136357251.
  7. "John Barrymore Ill" New York Times (January 24, 1920): 14.
  8. "Gilda Varesi in New Play" New York Times (July 8, 1920): 16.
  9. Bernard Sobel, "Actors Who Are Hidden" Theatre Magazine (September 1921): 170.
  10. "Enter Gilda Varesi: A New Star Twinkles in 'Enter Madame'" Current Opinion (February 1921): 199.
  11. Myles E. Connolly, "Prima Donna's Daughter Writes Own Play and Is Its Leading Lady" Boston Post (August 21, 1921): 41. via Newspapers.comopen access
  12. Alexander Woollcott, "The Shadow on a Great Success" Everybody's Magazine (January 1921): 39.
  13. Maude Sperry Turner, "The City of Escape" The Delineator (March 1921): 14.
  14. Alexander Woollcott, "Second Thoughts on First Nights" New York Times (August 22, 1920): X1.
  15. Gilda Varesi Archibald, The Online Books Page.
  16. "The Romantic Courtship of Gilda Varesi" Detroit Free Press (June 25, 1922): 96. via Newspapers.comopen access
  17. "Gilda Varesi to Marry" New York Times (March 11, 1922): 18.
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