Bertha Kalich

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Bertha Kalich (May 17, 1874 – April 18, 1939) was a Jewish actress, born in Lemberg, Galicia (now Lviv, Ukraine), primarily known for her roles in Yiddish theater in New York City. Originally brought to America by David Kessler, her roles were mainly "women of the world": the title characters of Pierre Berton and Charles Simon's play Zaza, Victorien Sardou's Fédora, Jacob Gordin's Sappho, and Magda in Hermann Sudermann's Heimat. Under the tutelage of Harrison Grey Fiske, she also starred on Broadway in plays such as Maeterlinck's Monna Vanna. [Adler, 1999, 361 (commentary)]

Kalich also followed in the path of Sarah Bernhardt, Charlotte Cushman, and other actresses when she played the title role of Shakespeare's Hamlet.

She is buried at Mount Hebron Cemetery in Flushing Queens, New York.

[edit] References

• Bertha Kalich at the Internet Movie Database
• Bertha Kalich at Internet Broadway Database
• —, Bertha Kalich on the site of "Find a Grave Cemetery Records" (retrieved February 28, 2004; used for birth and death dates)
• —, "David Kessler Dies; Noted Yiddish Actor; Stricken While Acting Role in a Tolstoy Play, His Death Follows an Operation", New York Times May 15, 1920, 15.
• —, Harrison Grey Fiske, on the site of Wayne S. Turney, retrieved February 28, 2004.
• —, Madam Bertha Kalish as Hamlet on the NYPL Digital Gallery
• Adler, Jacob, A Life on the Stage: A Memoir, translated and with commentary by Lulla Rosenfeld, Knopf, New York, 1999, ISBN 0-679-41351-0, 361 (commentary).
• Stuber, Irene, Women of achievement and Herstory, May 17, retrieved February 28, 2004.