Clara Jecks (22 September 1854 – 5 January 1951) was an English musical comedy performer, best known for soubrette and boy roles.
Early life Clara Marie Jecks was born in St Luke's, London, the daughter of Charles Jecks and Harriet Martha Coveney. Her father was an actor and theatrical manager, and her mother was an actress."Portraits: Miss Clara Jecks" The Theatre (1 September 1896): 126-127.Clara Jecks, D'Oyly Carte Who Was Who, The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company (2001)."A Woman of Parts: A Chat with Miss Clara Jenks" Sketch (16 August 1893): 141-142. She began appearing on the stage from a very early age, and was trained for a career in entertainment."Portraits of Celebrities: Miss Clara Jecks" The Strand (October 1893): 498.
Career Jecks specialised in soubrette and boy roles, saying "I am never so really happy as when acting a lad." She made her first professional appearance on the London stage in 1873, in the show Kissi Kissi.John Parker, Who's Who in the Theatre (Pitman 1916): 270. She toured with her mother in the Comedy Opera Company in 1878 in several roles, in The Sorcerer, Trial by Jury, and Breaking the Spell. Other of her many stage appearances included Formosa (1877), Maid of Croissey (1880),John Franceschina, ed., Gore On Stage: The Plays of Catherine Gore (Routledge 2004): 11. The Sleepwalker (1893), The Black Domino (1893),"Incidents of the Month" Ludgate Monthly (June 1893): 218. The Middy Ashore, The Member for Slocum, Stage Struck, Santa Claus, Gentleman Joe (1895),"A Thorough Little Gentleman; Ten Minutes With Miss Clara Jecks" To-Day (July 20, 1895): 341. A Merry Madcap (1896), Cinderella (1893-1894),"Plays of the Month" Theatre Magazine (February 1, 1894): 105. Harlequinade and Justice Nell (1900),J. P. Wearing, The London Stage 1900-1909: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel (Scarecrow Press 2013): 17, 36-37. and her final London appearance, in The Critic (1911)."Miss Clara Jecks" The Era Annual (1897): 45-46."Miss Clara Jecks" The Sketch (January 2, 1895): 446.
Personal life Jecks married at age 47. Her cousin Reginald Jecks was also a performer. Jecks died in Highgate in 1951, aged 96 years.
References
External links An 1892 photograph of Clara Jecks by Alfred Ellis, in the National Portrait Gallery (London).