Fritzi Scheff
Fritzi Scheff | |
|---|---|
 Fritzi Scheff in 1913 | |
| Born | Friederike Scheff August 30, 1879 |
| Died | April 8, 1954 (aged 74) New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress and opera singer |
| Spouse(s) | Baron Fritz von Bardeleben John Fox, Jr. George Anderson |
Fritzi Scheff (August 30, 1879 – April 8, 1954) was an American actress and vocalist.
Biography[]
Born Friederike Scheff in Vienna to Dr. Gottfried Scheff and Anna Yeager, she studied at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt. She made her debut on January 10, 1879 in Nuremberg.[1] She debuted in Munich in the title role of Martha in 1898.
In 1901 she first appeared at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, singing rôles in La Bohème, Die Meistersinger, Die Walküre, and Don Giovanni. She sang in the Victor Herbert operetta Babette at Washington, D.C. and New York (1903).
Toward the end of the 1904-05 season, Scheff became ill and was replaced by her understudy Ida Hawley to close out the remaining performances of Babette.[2] Scheff had immense success as Fifi in Mlle. Modiste (1905–1908, 1913) and appeared also in (1908), The Mikado (1910), (1911), and The Love Wager (1912). From 1913-18, she appeared principally in vaudeville, returning in the latter year to the musical opera stage in Glorianna.[3] Among the rôles she sang with the Fritzi Scheff Opera Company was that of Adele in Johann Strauss operatta Die Fledermaus including at the Belasco Theater in Washington, D.C. in 1912.
Scheff died on April 8, 1954 in New York.[1]
Movies and television[]
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In 1915 Scheff appeared in her first film, Pretty Mrs. Smith, based on a Broadway play she starred in. It was produced and directed by Hobart Bosworth. She made no other silent pictures. In the late 40s and early 50s Scheff ventured into sound movies and television. She appeared in night clubs and on talk shows such as Ralph Edwards' This is Your Life shortly before her death.
Marriages[]
She married, first, Baron Fritz von Bardeleben a Prussian nobleman, then in 1908 John Fox, Jr. author of The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, and, in 1913, George Anderson, an actor. The unions were all childless.[4]
Notes[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b Haag, John (2002). "Scheff, Fritzi (1879–1954)". In Commire, Anne (ed.). Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Waterford, Connecticut: Yorkin Publications. ISBN 0-7876-4074-3.
- ^ Daily Gazette And Bulletin - May 23, 1904, Williamsport, Pennsylvania
- ^ Reynolds, Francis J., ed. (1921). . Collier's New Encyclopedia. New York: P. F. Collier & Son Company.
- ^ "Saucy Kiss Me Again Girl Singer Fritzi Scheff Is Dead". The Milwaukee Journal. April 9, 1954. Retrieved June 17, 2011.
External links[]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fritzi Scheff. |
- Fritzi Scheff at IMDb
- Fritzi Scheff at the Internet Broadway Database
- Fritzi Scheff at Find a Grave
- Fritzi Scheff portrait gallery at NYP Library
- Fritzi Scheff; PeriodPaper.com about 1910
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- 1879 births
- 1954 deaths
- 19th-century Austrian actresses
- 20th-century American actresses
- 19th-century Austrian musicians
- 20th-century American musicians
- Austrian opera singers
- Austrian stage actresses
- Austro-Hungarian emigrants to the United States
- American stage actresses
- American film actresses
- American television actresses
- American opera singers
- Actresses from Vienna
- Musicians from Vienna
- Vaudeville performers
- Burials at Kensico Cemetery
- 19th-century Austrian singers
- 19th-century American singers
- 20th-century Austrian singers
- 20th-century American singers
- 19th-century American women