Lillian Herlein

Lillian Herlein (March 11, 1895 – April 13, 1971) was an American actress and singer whose career spanned theater, vaudeville, radio, television, and film during the early twentieth century. Her Broadway appearances extended from 1909 to 1933.

Herlein made her Broadway debut in September 1909 at the Herald Square Theatre in New York City, playing the role of Zoradie in The Rose of Algeria, which featured music by Victor Herbert. During that production, her performance of "The Rose of the World" drew an encore from the audience. She returned to Broadway in The Never Homes in 1911 and appeared again more than two decades later in the play Man Bites Dog in 1933.

Alongside her Broadway work, Herlein maintained an active presence in vaudeville, where she performed at venues including the 5th Avenue Theatre in New York City with Keith & Proctor. In July 1911 she appeared at the Brighton Beach Music Hall, and in December of that year she took part in a charity benefit at the New York Hippodrome organized for the Christmas Fund of the New York American and Evening Journal, with proceeds directed to the poor of New York City. Her vaudeville engagements also brought her to the Palace Theater and the Winter Garden Theater, as well as to venues in Europe.

In June 1919, Herlein was among the players at the Orpheum Theatre in Brooklyn, New York, in a program that included A Hungarian Rhapsody and the musical comedy Sweeties. The following month she performed with the Alla Maslova Ballet, whose troupe presented Kiss Me at the B.F. Keith Theatre at 675 15th Street NW in Washington, D.C.

Her film work included the role of Mrs. Levy in Solomon in Society (1922) and an uncredited part in Thanks for the Memory (1938). In her later years she worked in radio and television as a character actor.

Herlein was the widow of Charles G. Strakosch, who died in June 1965. The couple had a son, Charles Jr. Herlein died on April 13, 1971, at French Hospital on 8th Avenue and West 30th Street in New York City, at the age of 76.