Fanny Janauschek

Fanny Janauschek (born Francesca Romana Magdalena Janauschek; July 20, 1829 – November 28, 1904) was a Czech-born American 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
SpouseBaron Frederick J. Pillot,1854 (died 1884)[1]

Biography

Francesca Romana Magdalena 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 the United States in 1867 and first performed at the Academy of Music in 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 U.S. 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. Her performance of Medea by Franz Grillparzer inspired William Dean Howells to write his novel A Modern Instance.[7] 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 the murderous Mademoiselle Hortense.[8]

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, New York City.[9][10] Janauschek had no known offspring.

References
  1. Fanny Janauschek, highbeam.com. Accessed November 20, 2022.
  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 2nd Edition, by Gerald Bordman, c. 1992, Oxford University Press, p. 378
  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. Sweeney, Gerard M. "The Medea Howells Saw" In American Literature c. 1970 vol 42, No. 1, pg. 83
  8. Bolton, H. Philip (1987). Dickens Dramatized. Boston: G. K. Hall & Co. pp. 349–352. ISBN 978-0816189243.
  9. Famous Actors and Actresses on the American Stage by William C. Young c. 1975 vol 1, pg. 568
  10. The Oxford Companion To American Theatre.
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