Helene Odilon (1865–1939) was a German stage actress. Her acting career began while she was the apprentice of German stage actor Ludwig Barnay. In 1902, she was reported to be "currently the greatest actress in Germany". Odilon was known for her comedic

ingénue The ''ingénue'' (, , ) is a stock character in literature, film and a role type in the theater, generally a girl or a young woman, who is endearingly innocent. ''Ingénue'' may also refer to a new young actress or one typecast in such role ...

roles. She was born in

Northern Germany Northern Germany (german: link=no, Norddeutschland) is a linguistic, geographic, socio-cultural and historic region in the northern part of Germany which includes the coastal states of Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Lower Saxony an ...

Career

Odilon started acting as the apprentice of German stage actor Ludwig Barnay at his Berlin theater. In the early 1890s, she traveled to the Volkstheater in Vienna to replace actress

Adele Sandrock Adele Sandrock (; born Adele Feldern-Förster; 19 August 1863 – 30 August 1937) was a German-Dutch actress. After a successful theatrical career, she became one of the first German movie stars. Early life Sandrock was born in Rotterdam, Ne ...

. In Berlin, Odilon was best known for her

roles and it was believed that she was more suited towards comedy in those roles. She was one of the few German actresses of the time to be successful in London. Her first role in New York was in the play ''The Star'', which was shown at the

Irving Place Theatre The Irving Place Theatre was located at the southwest corner of Irving Place and East 15th Street in the Union Square neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. Built in 1888, it served as a German language theatre, a Yiddish theatre, a burlesq ...

. ''The Star'' was written by Herman Bahr, a well known dramatist from Vienna. In 1903, the actress Adele Hartwig replaced her in the revival of the drama ''Nachtmar'' at the Volkstheater because Odilon had a

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

. Critics in Vienna were unimpressed by Hartwig's performance.

Marriages

Odilon was married to

Alexander Girardi Alexander Girardi (pronounced ) (5 December 1850 – 20 April 1918) was an Austrian actor and tenor singer in operettas. Career Girardi was born in Graz; his father was the locksmith Andreas Girardi who had migrated to Graz from Cortina d'A ...

and she had an affair with a financier. Girardi discovered Odilon's

chemise A chemise or shift is a classic smock, or a modern type of women's undergarment or dress. Historically, a chemise was a simple garment worn next to the skin to protect clothing from sweat and body oils, the precursor to the modern shirts commonl ...

in the financier's bedroom and he threatened to murder both of them. After Odilon and the financier contacted the police and the officers did not arrest Girardi, the two of them attempted to have Girardi committed to an insane asylum. After Girardi discovered their plan, he received help from a former mistress of

Franz Joseph I of Austria Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I (german: Franz Joseph Karl, hu, Ferenc József Károly, 18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and the Grand title of the Emperor of Austria, other states of the Habsburg m ...

, Käthe Schratt. After Shratt helped Girardi, he had a hushed divorce with Odilon. After the divorce, Odilon married Baron Rakovsky. Sometime after she divorced Rakovsky, she married Herr Flesch, the man who rescued her from a sanitarium after she was declared insane after she had

paralysis Paralysis (also known as plegia) is a loss of motor function in one or more muscles. Paralysis can also be accompanied by a loss of feeling (sensory loss) in the affected area if there is sensory damage. In the United States, roughly 1 in 50 ...

due to a stroke. A 1912 article from the ''

St. Louis Post-Dispatch The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a major regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the ''Belleville News-De ...

'' said that Odilon proposed to marry Budapest doctor Radwan—who hypnotized susceptible people including older women—while she was hypnotized by him. The article also stated that she was building a

séance A séance or seance (; ) is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word ''séance'' comes from the French word for "session", from the Old French ''seoir'', "to sit". In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, spe ...

hall for him in Budapest.

Later years

A 1922 article from the ''

New York Herald The ''New York Herald'' was a large-distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between 1835 and 1924. At that point it was acquired by its smaller rival the ''New-York Tribune'' to form the '' New York Herald Tribune''. His ...

'' stated that Odilon was in poverty and was almost blind. Odilon tried to earn money by selling postcard photographs in a Vienna tearoom so that she could buy a home. Despite not many of the guests remembering Odilon's career, she received donations which also included a basket of flowers that had banknotes at the bottom of it. Odilon died in 1939.

Reception

A ''Public Opinion'' article published in 1901 said, "Her methods are free from artificiality, and her aim is plainly a realism made effective by art". A 1902 article from the magazine ''Philharmonic'' stated, "She is said to have an enormous repertoire, her histrionic power having a wide range of expression". The article also said that she was "said to be currently the greatest actress in Germany". Odilon was named the " Bernhardt of Germany" and during her appearances in the United States, she was compared to

Gabrielle Réjane Gabrielle Réjane (), ''née'' Gabrielle Charlotte Réju (6 June 1856 – 14 June 1920), was a French actress of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The daughter of a former actor, Réjane studied at the Conservatoire national supérieur d'ar ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Odilon, Helene 1865 births 1939 deaths German stage actresses 19th-century German actresses 20th-century German actresses