Helena Modjeska

Helena Modrzejewska (Polish: [mɔdʐɛˈjɛfska]; born Jadwiga Helena Misel Benda; October 12, 1840 – April 8, 1909), known professionally in the United States as Helena Modjeska, was a Polish-American actress who specialized in Shakespearean and tragic roles. She was also a philanthropist and a socialite.

She was successful first on the Polish stage. After emigrating to the United States, she also succeeded on stage in America and London. She is regarded as the greatest actress in the history of theatre in Poland. She was also a member of the Pacific Coast Women's Press Association and was mother of a prominent Polish-American engineer Ralph Modjeski.

Helena Modjeska performed dramatic roles in five languages—Polish (in Kraków, Warsaw, and Lwów), English (throughout her 30-year American career), French (including Adrienne Lecouvreur), German (with early German theatrical companies), and Czech (onstage in Prague). Her ability to work professionally in all five made her the most linguistically versatile actress of the 19th century.

According to Beth Holmgren in Starring Madame Modjeska, despite not learning English until age thirty-six and retaining a Polish accent, Helena Modjeska was regarded by stage historians as the most distinguished Shakespearean actress in America in the late nineteenth century, performing thirty-five English roles (twelve Shakespearean) between 1877 and 1907, for a period of thirty years, appearing with leading actors such as Edwin Booth and the Barrymores, and ultimately playing 256 roles across her career.

Modjeska became a well known socialite in America, from Boston to the South, she cultivated friendships with retired presidents Ulysses S. Grant and Grover Cleveland, General William T. Sherman, poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, writer Mark Twain.