16 Facts About Bertha Kalich

Historians estimate that, during her career, Kalich performed more than 125 different roles in seven different languages.

Bertha Kalich was born Beylke Kalakh in Lemberg, Galicia, Austria-Hungary, the only child of Solomon Kalakh, a poor brush manufacturer and amateur violinist.

Bertha Kalich's mother was Babette Halber Kalakh, a seamstress who often made costumes for local theaters.

When Gimpel's leading lady left for America, Bertha Kalich became his prima donna, winning the title role in Avrom Goldfaden's operetta Shulamis.

Bertha Kalich was able to pick up Romanian in a matter of months, and was able to appear in major roles there with the state theater.

Bertha Kalich married Leopold Spachner in 1890 at the age of 16.

Bertha Kalich's success prompted jealousies, however and in 1894 there was rumored to be an assassination plot in the works by some of her rivals.

Bertha Kalich's newly founded Thalia Theater was looking for fresh talent, and there Kalich appeared in Di Vilde Kenigin and a Yiddish production of La Belle Helene.

Bertha Kalich reprised former roles of Shulamis, Juliette, and Desdemona in a number of Yiddish-language productions.

Bertha Kalich played a number of roles in these landmark works, even beating out the other male stars for a chance to play the coveted role of Hamlet.

Bertha Kalich's roles tended to be "women of the world", such as the title characters she played in Pierre Berton and Charles Simon's play Zaza, Victorien Sardou's Fedora, Sappho and Phaon, and Magda in Hermann Sudermann's Heimat.

Bertha Kalich left New York for Hollywood in 1914, where she appeared in a few notable films, including a reprise of her hit Broadway role in Marta of the Lowlands.

Success was short-lived and by 1915, Bertha Kalich was frequently returning to Yiddish roles to supplement her income.

Bertha Kalich died on 18 April 1939, aged 64, from undisclosed causes.

Bertha Kalich's remains were interred at Mount Hebron Cemetery in Flushing, Queens, New York.

Bertha Kalich had come to be seen as "a relic of the theatrical past, with a manner too romantic and grand even for the Yiddish stage", Soyer notes.