{{Short description|American actress (1879–1954)}} {{Infobox person |image=Fritzi Scheff.jpg |caption=Fritzi Scheff in 1913 |birth_name = Friederike Scheff |birth_date= {{Birth date|1879|8|30}} |birth_place= Vienna, Austria-Hungary |death_date={{Death date and age|1954|4|8|1879|8|30}} |death_place= New York, U.S. |occupation= Actress and opera singer |spouse= Baron Fritz von Bardeleben<br>John Fox, Jr.<br>George Anderson }}
[[File:Fritzi Scheff demonstrating Magnavox for Fifth Liberty Loan in New York City, 1895 (3332675328).jpg|thumb|Promoting Fifth Liberty Loan war bonds in New York City, 1919]] thumb|right|Program for Fritzi Scheff in ''Die Fledermaus'' at the Belasco Theater, Washington, D.C., April 8, 1912
''' Fritzi Scheff''' (born '''Friederike Scheff'''; August 30, 1879 – April 8, 1954) was an American actress and singer.
==Biography== Born Friederike Scheff in Vienna to Dr. Gottfried Scheff and Anna Yeager, she studied at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt. She made her debut on January 10, 1897, in Nuremberg.<ref name="WiWH">{{cite book |last=Haag |first=John |title=Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia |date=2002 |publisher=Yorkin Publications |isbn=0-7876-4074-3 |editor1-last=Commire |editor1-first=Anne |location=Waterford, Connecticut |chapter=Scheff, Fritzi (1879–1954) |chapter-url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/scheff-fritzi-1879-1954}}</ref> She debuted in Munich at the Royal Opera House.<ref name="left">{{cite news |title=Fritzi Scheff Left $476 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1955/02/04/archives/fritzi-scheff-left-476-singing-stars-estate-mostly-mementoes-of.html |access-date=December 18, 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=February 4, 1955 |page=16|url-access=subscription}}</ref>
In 1901 she first appeared at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, singing roles in ''La Bohème'',<ref name="left" /> ''Die Meistersinger'', ''Die Walküre'', and ''Don Giovanni''. She sang in the Victor Herbert operetta ''Babette'' at Washington, D.C., and New York (1903).
Toward the end of the 1904-05 season, Scheff became ill and was replaced by her understudy Ida Hawley to close out the remaining performances of ''Babette''.<ref>Daily Gazette And Bulletin - May 23, 1904, Williamsport, Pennsylvania</ref> Scheff had immense success as Fifi in ''Mlle. Modiste'' (1905–1908, 1913) and appeared also in ''The Prima Donna'' (1908), ''The Mikado'' (1910), ''The Duchess'' (1911), and ''The Love Wager'' (1912). From 1913-18, she appeared principally in vaudeville, returning in the latter year to the musical opera stage in ''Glorianna''.<ref>{{Cite Collier's|wstitle=Scheff, Fritzi}}</ref> Among the rôles she sang with the Fritzi Scheff Opera Company was that of Adele in Johann Strauss operatta ''Die Fledermaus'' including at the Belasco Theater in Washington, D.C., in 1912.
==Movies and television== In 1915 Scheff appeared in her first film, ''Pretty Mrs. Smith'', based on a Broadway play she starred in. It was to be her "vehicle", but critics were mostly negative about her performance and the film; instead, they were positive about Charlotte Greenwood.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LecZEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA283 |page=283 |title=The Complete Book of 1910s Broadway Musicals |first=Dan |last=Dietz |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2021 |isbn=9781538150283}}</ref> She made no other silent pictures. In the late 1940s and early 1950s Scheff ventured into sound movies and television. She appeared in night clubs,<ref>{{Citation |last=Hischak |first=Thomas S. |title=Scheff, Fritzi |date=2009-01-01 |work=The Oxford Companion to the American Musical |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780195335330.001.0001/acref-9780195335330-e-1618 |access-date=2025-09-05 |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en |doi=10.1093/acref/9780195335330.001.0001/acref-9780195335330-e-1618 |isbn=978-0-19-533533-0}}</ref> and died a month after being in Ralph Edwards' ''This Is Your Life''.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hu3nNSmRjZ0C&pg=PA459 |page=459 |title=The Encyclopedia of Vaudeville |first=Anthony |last=Slide |publisher=UP of Mississippi |year=2012 |isbn=9781617032509}}</ref>
==Personal life and death== She married, first, Baron Fritz von Bardeleben a Prussian nobleman, then in 1908 John Fox, Jr. author of ''The Trail of the Lonesome Pine'', and, in 1913, George Anderson, an actor. The unions were all childless.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=AL9QAAAAIBAJ&pg=7263,4445749&dq=fritzi-scheff&hl=en|title=Saucy Kiss Me Again Girl Singer Fritzi Scheff Is Dead|date=April 9, 1954|work=The Milwaukee Journal|accessdate=June 17, 2011}}{{Dead link|date=May 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
Scheff died on April 8, 1954, in New York.<ref name="WiWH" />
==Notes== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category}} *{{IMDb name|0770482}} *{{IBDB name}} *{{Find a Grave|6679178}} *[https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/search/index?utf8=%E2%9C%93&keywords=fritzi+scheff Fritzi Scheff] portrait gallery at NYP Library *[https://web.archive.org/web/20120320072924/http://www.periodpaper.com/index.php/1910-fritzi-scheff-actress-stage-will-h-bradley-print Fritzi Scheff; PeriodPaper.com about 1910]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Scheff, Fritzi}} Category:1879 births Category:1954 deaths Category:19th-century Austrian actresses Category:20th-century American actresses Category:19th-century Austrian women opera singers Category:Austrian stage actresses Category:Emigrants from Austria-Hungary to the United States Category:American stage actresses Category:American film actresses Category:American television actresses Category:American operatic sopranos Category:Actresses from Vienna Category:Musicians from Vienna Category:American vaudeville performers Category:Burials at Kensico Cemetery Category:20th-century American women singers Category:20th-century American singers