Clara Jecks (22 September 1854 – 5 January 1951) was an English musical comedy performer, best known for soubrette and boy roles.
Early life edit
Clara Jecks was born in London, the daughter of Charles Jecks and Harriet Martha Coveney. Her father was an actor and theatrical manager, and her mother was an actress.[1][2][3] She began appearing on the stage from a very early age, and was trained for a career in entertainment.[4]
Career edit
Jecks specialized in soubrette and boy roles, saying "I am never so really happy as when acting a lad."[3] She made her first professional appearance on the London stage in 1873, in the show Kissi Kissi.[5] She toured with her mother in the Comedy Opera Company in 1878 in several roles, in The Sorcerer, Trial by Jury, and Breaking the Spell. Other of her many stage appearances included Formosa (1877), Maid of Croissey (1880),[6] The Sleepwalker (1893), The Black Domino (1893),[7] The Middy Ashore, The Member for Slocum, Stage Struck, Santa Claus, Gentleman Joe (1895),[8] A Merry Madcap (1896), Cinderella (1893-1894),[9] Harlequinade and Justice Nell (1900),[10] and her final London appearance, in The Critic (1911).[2][1][11][12]
Personal life edit
Clara Jecks died in 1951, aged 96 years.[2]
References edit
- ^ a b "Portraits: Miss Clara Jecks" The Theatre (1 September 1896): 126-127.
- ^ a b c Clara Jecks, D'Oyly Carte Who Was Who, The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company (2001).
- ^ a b "A Woman of Parts: A Chat with Miss Clara Jenks" Sketch (16 August 1893): 141-142.
- ^ "Portraits of Celebrities: Miss Clara Jecks" The Strand (October 1893): 498.
- ^ John Parker, Who's Who in the Theatre (Pitman 1916): 270.
- ^ John Franceschina, ed., Gore On Stage: The Plays of Catherine Gore (Routledge 2004): 11. ISBN 9781135580674
- ^ "Incidents of the Month" Ludgate Monthly (June 1893): 218.
- ^ "A Thorough Little Gentleman; Ten Minutes With Miss Clara Jecks" To-Day (July 20, 1895): 341.
- ^ "Plays of the Month" Theatre Magazine (February 1, 1894): 105.
- ^ J. P. Wearing, The London Stage 1900-1909: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel (Scarecrow Press 2013): 17, 36-37. ISBN 9780810892941
- ^ "Miss Clara Jecks" The Era Annual (1897): 45-46.
- ^ "Miss Clara Jecks" The Sketch (January 2, 1895): 446.