Helena Modrzejewska: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

Wikimedia Commons/Google

Helena Modrzejewska

Helena Modrzejewska was a Polish actor who excelled in Shakespearean performs every in Poland and America and who was best acknowledged for her portrayal of Woman MacBeth.

She is honored with a Google Doodle on October 12, 2021, what would have been her 181st birthday. Her establish is often given as Helena Modjeska.

“Extensively thought-about among the many best actors in Polish historic previous and considered one of many late-Nineteenth century’s largest Shakespearean stage performers in America, Helena Modrzejewska (acknowledged professionally as Helena Modjeska) portrayed nearly 300 completely completely different roles in over 6,000 performs—every in Polish and English,” Google wrote with its tribute.

Proper right here’s what it’s advisable know:

1. Helena Modrzejewska Was Born in Poland & Had Numerous Title Modifications

Google Helena Modrzejewska

All by means of her life, Modrzejewska was acknowledged by numerous completely completely different names.

Modrzejewska “was born as Jadwiga Benda on this present day in 1840 in Krakow, Poland and was shortly renamed Helena Opid,” Google wrote. According to Polish History.pl, she was the daughter of a wealthy Polish widow. Her father was not acknowledged.

By 1961, she had gotten her start in theater. Google says that was in a one-act comedy known as “The White Camellia.” By this stage, she had a stage establish, Google reported – Modrzejewska.

2. She Was Known as Poland’s ‘Brightest Theater Star’

In her interval, Modrzejewska earned a wide range of acclaim in her dwelling nation, turning into typically often known as Poland’s “brightest theater star,” according to Polish History.pl.

According to the site Culture.pl, she was “a dwelling legend in her time as a star every in Poland and America.”

The situation quotes a reviewer from her interval as writing about “the unquestionable experience of Mrs Modrzejewska who, whereas nonetheless coping with the difficulties of her profession, locations rather a lot work and diligence into every stage look that over time she might flip into the star of the right theatres.”

3. The Good Actress Had a Son

In step with Polish Historic previous.pl, the actress did have a son in 1861 who was known as Rudolf Modrzejewski. His father was
Gustaw Zimajer, an actor and director .

The situation describes how Zimajer helped mentor Modrzejewska and she or he improved her voice. The son they’d collectively “grew to turn into a well known engineer,” the placement tales.

She broke up with Zimajer, though, and ended up marrying a “wealthy landowner, Karol Chłapowski,” the placement tales.

4. The Actress Moved to America, The place She Died

Wikimedia CommonsHelena Modrzejewska

After dominating Polish theater, Modrzejewska moved to America to attempt her hand on the stage there.

It was there that she died, on April 9, 1909, in Bay Island, Newport Seashore, near Los Angeles, California, according to Britannica.

By the purpose she died, her “repertory included 260 Shakespearean and trendy roles, some in every Polish and English,” the placement reported.

The Polish Embassy inside the U.S. tweeted a recognition of her birthday, writing, “Utterly glad Birthday to Helena Modrzejewska (#Modjeska)! The renowned Polish-American actress was born #OnThisDay 1840.”

5. Modrzejewska Was Recognized for Participating in Woman MacBeth

Wikimedia CommonsHelena Modrzejewska

Woman MacBeth is clearly one amongst William Shakespeare’s best-known characters, and Modzejewska made that character a signature perform.

Custom.pl describes her many roles, nonetheless, along with: “Modrzejewska’s most important roles on the time included that of Anna Oswiecimowna in a play by Mikołaj Boloz Antoniewicz (1865), Princess Eboli in Don Carlos (1866), Amalia in Schiller’s The Robbers (1866) and, the similar 12 months, Portia in The Service supplier of Venice – her first Shakespearian perform.”

She starred in productions in Krakow, Warsaw, and Vienna. Although she initially ran a farm when she acquired right here to America, she found her method once more to the stage in San Francisco and was a severe success. One Polish correspondent wrote on the time, in step with Custom.pl, “All individuals was in a frenzy… No individual left their seats after the current was over, which is phenomenal in America. Reverse to native personalized, the actress was known as once more eleven events… America was taken by storm.”

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