Hedwig Reicher

Hedwig Reicher (12 June 1884 – 2 September 1971) was a German actress who performed on Broadway between 1909 and 1916, with her stage credits listed under the altered spelling Hedwiga Reicher. She adopted the modified spelling of her first name after arriving in the United States, where some people mistakenly addressed her as "Mr. Hedwig." She came from a theatrical family: her father was actor Emanuel Reicher, her half-brother was actor Frank Reicher, her brother Ernst Reicher was an actor and screenwriter, and her sister Elly was also an actress. A second brother, Hans Reicher, worked as a sculptor.

Reicher made her Broadway debut in On the Eve in 1909, the same year she appeared in The Next of Kin. Her subsequent stage work included Henrik Ibsen's The Lady from the Sea in 1911, in which she played Ellida, and The Thunderbolt, also in 1911. In 1912 she starred in June Madness as Mrs. Thornborough, and the following year appeared in The Stronger. She continued her Broadway career with When the Young Vine Blooms in 1915 and Caliban of the Yellow Sands in 1916, in which she portrayed Cleopatra.

Beyond performing, Reicher took on a producing role, co-producing two plays alongside her father and acting in both. In 1921 she mounted a solo production of Monna Vanna at the Little Theater in Los Angeles, again appearing as a performer in the production.

On 3 March 1913, Reicher was hired to portray the mythological figure Columbia in the Woman Suffrage Procession in Washington, D.C. The march, which drew between 5,000 and 8,000 suffragists proceeding from the US Capitol to the Treasury Building, was watched by a crowd of approximately 500,000 people, the majority of whom were men. The procession was deliberately timed to precede Woodrow Wilson's inauguration, scheduled for the following day.

Reicher's film career began with The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, produced by Ferdinand Earle. Her subsequent screen appearances included A Lover's Oath (1925), The King of Kings (1927), The Leopard Lady (1928) as Fran Holweg, and three 1929 releases: True Heaven as Madame Grenot, The Godless Girl as a prison matron, and Lucky Star as Mrs. Tucker. She appeared in several films during the 1930s, among them Dracula's Daughter (1936) as the innkeeper's wife and Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939) as Lisa Kassel. Her final screen appearance came in Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet (1940). On 2 February 1934, Reicher married concert pianist and music teacher Maurice Zam in Hollywood, California.