Mari Jászai (born Mária Krippel; 24 February 1850, Ászár – 5 October 1926,

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

) was a Hungarian actress.

Life

Mari Jászai 24 February 1850 in Ászár,

Komárom county Komárom (Hungarian: ; or ; , later ; ) is a city in Hungary on the south bank of the Danube in Komárom-Esztergom County. Komárom fortress played an important role in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 and many contemporary English sources re ...

, as a daughter of a carpenter. She worked from age 10 as a maidservant, both in Budapest and

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, assisting soldiers as a ''sutling wench'' in the

Battle of Königgrätz The Battle of Königgrätz (or Sadowa) was the decisive battle of the Austro-Prussian War in which the Kingdom of Prussia defeated the Austrian Empire. It took place on 3 July 1866, near the Bohemian city of Hradec Králové (German: Königgrä ...

. In 1866, aged 16, she fled to the touring company of ''Gusztáv Hubay'' in

Székesfehérvár Székesfehérvár (; ; ; ; Serbian language, Serbian: ''Стони Београд''; ), known colloquially as Fehérvár (), is a city in central Hungary, and the country's ninth-largest city. It is the Regions of Hungary, regional capital of C ...

, and began to work as an extra. By 1867 she already acted on stages of Buda, and from 1868, in the theatre of

Cluj-Napoca Cluj-Napoca ( ; ), or simply Cluj ( , ), is a city in northwestern Romania. It is the second-most populous city in the country and the seat of Cluj County. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest (), Budapest () and Belgrade ( ...

. She met her first husband, comedian ''Vidor Kassai'' during her time in Buda, whom she divorced two years later, never marrying again. Jászai became a member of the National Theatre in 1872, where she remained until her death (except for the 1900 season, working in

Vígszínház The Comedy Theatre of Budapest () is a theatre in Budapest. Starting in the late 19th century as an opposition to the conservative National Theatre (Budapest), National Theatre, it became a pioneer institution of Hungary, Hungarian drama, and one o ...

theatre).

Legacy

A permanent member of the National Theatre since 1901, Mari Jászai became one of the most influential actors in the Hungarian theatrical world. Playing over 300 roles, she also translated a number of works, including

Henrik Ibsen Henrik Johan Ibsen (; ; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright, poet and actor. Ibsen is considered the world's pre-eminent dramatist of the 19th century and is often referred to as "the father of modern drama." He pioneered ...

John Gabriel Borkman ''John Gabriel Borkman'' is a 1896 play by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It was his penultimate work. Plot The Borkman family fortunes have been brought low by the imprisonment of John Gabriel who used his position as a bank manager to ...

. The theatre of Tatabánya is named after her, as are numerous public places in Budapest, and one of the premier awards of national dramatic artists, the '' Jászai Mari Award''.

Selected filmography

* ''

Bánk Bán Bánk is a village and municipality in the comitat of Nógrád, Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the nor ...

'' (1914) * ''

The Exile ''The eXile'' was a Moscow-based English-language biweekly free tabloid newspaper, aimed at the city's expatriate community, which combined outrageous, sometimes satirical, content with investigative reporting. In October 2006, co-editor Jake ...

'' (1914)

Sources

*István, Lehel. ''Jászai Mari emlékiratai''. Budapest: Babits Kiadó, 2003. *Mónika, Balatoni. ''Tükör-játék''. Budapest: Kairosz Kiadó, 2002.

External links

Official site of the Jászai Mari TheatreMari Jászai on Port.hu
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jaszai, Mari 1850 births 1926 deaths People from Budapest Hungarian stage actresses Burials at Kerepesi Cemetery 19th-century Hungarian actresses Hungarian silent film actresses 20th-century Hungarian actresses