Fania Marinoff

Fania Marinoff
Fania Marinoff by Arnold Genthe in 1913
Born March 20, 1890
Odessa, Russian Empire
(now Ukraine)
Died (aged 81)
Englewood, New Jersey
Cause of death Pneumonia
Nationality American
Occupation Actress
Spouse(s)
Carl Van Vechten
(m. 1914; d. 1964)

Fania Marinoff (Russian: Фаня Маринов; Yiddish: פאַניאַ מאַרינאָוו‎) (March 20, 1890 – November 17, 1971) was a Russian-born American actress.

Career

Marinoff played supporting and lead roles in dozens of Broadway plays between 1903 and 1937, seven U.S. silent movies between 1914 and 1917, and three short films in 1915.[1]

Marinoff was an actress and dancer for almost 50 years. Started soubrette roles at the age of 13 years old. Her career bloomed when she was lead actress in the Greenwich Village Players. She was well known for her movie roles in One Of The Girl (1914), The Galloper (1915) and Life's Whirlpool (1917). On stage, she played lead in the original play Karen (1918), and highly recognized from Antony and Cleopatra (1937), Pillars of Society (1931).

During her career she took a 8 year break because of her heavy drinking, she told an interviewer.[2] The last few years of her career she volunteered at Stage-Door Canteen entertaining troops from 1942-45. After retiring from acting, she and her husband Carl Van Vechten, were still quite active during the Harlem Renaissance. Throwing parties for friends and other famous figures (Georgia O'Keefe, Gertrude Stein) at the time, until her husband passed in 1964.

Life

Fania Marinoff was born in Odessa, Russia on March 20, 1890.[3] Marinoff was born into a Jewish household, she was the thirteenth child and seventh daughter born to Mayer and Leah Marinoff, who shortly passed away after she was born. Nicknamed Fanny as child, Marinoff at the age of 6 was smuggled on onboard an overcrowded passenger ship headed to America. Marinoff arrived in Boston, MA where she lived undernourished and uneducated.[4] At the age of 8, Marinoff was sent to live with her old brother, Michael. While living with Michael and his wife, Marinoff was tortured on a regular basis, locking her in dark rooms infested with rats upon hours on end. A year later at the age of 8, Marinoff made her stage debut as a little boy in “Cyrano de Bergerac” at the El Itch Theater.[5] This launched the beginning of what would be a 50 year long career.

In the year 1914 Fania Marinoff married American writer and photographer, Carl Van Vechten. The two meet in first meet in the summer of 1912 in New York City through mutual friends. Shortly after meeting each other, the two quickly formed a strong bond. Within the first year together, Van Vechten told Fania that she was more than what he could have dreamed of saying she is, “the only one that I have ever found who completely satisfies me.”[6] From the beginning of their relationship, Fania Marinoff was aware of Van Vechten’s homosexual desires. Although Marinoff had attained great recognition prior to meeting Van Vechten, once married, Fania Marinoff found herself living in Van Vechten’s shadow. To many she was known as simply, “Carlo’s wife”.[7] The couple quickly played a prominent role in the Harlem Renaissance.[8]

Marinoff may not have been a practicing Jew, but her she was very religious and her religious identity was centered around Judaism.[9]

Nella Larsen dedicated her book Passing to Marinoff and husband Van Vechten.

Death

Marinoff died in 1971 in Englewood, New Jersey from pneumonia.[10]

Partial filmography

References

  1. ↑ Still, J. A., & Headlee-Huffman, L. M., Just Tell the Story: Troubled Island (Flagstaff, AZ: Master-Player Library, 2006), p. 444.
  2. ↑ "FANIA MARINOFF ACTRESS, 81, DEAD". The New York Times. November 17, 1971. Retrieved May 24, 2018.
  3. ↑ "Fania Marinoff". Retrieved May 24, 2018.
  4. ↑ White, Edward (2014). The Tastemaker: Carl Van Vechten and the Birth of Modern America.
  5. ↑ "Fania Marinoff". The Extravagant Crowd. Retrieved May 24, 2018.
  6. ↑ White, Edward. The Tastemaker: Carl Van Vechten and the Birth of Modern America. 2014. p. 89.
  7. ↑ "Fania Marinoff". Extravant Crowd. Retrieved May 24, 2018.
  8. ↑ Rodgers, Gillian (March 2009). "Fania Marinoff". Jewish Women's Archive Encyclopedia. Retrieved May 24, 2018.
  9. ↑ Rodger, Gillian (March 2009). "Fania Marinoff". Jewish Women's Archive Encyclopedia. Retrieved May 24, 2018.
  10. ↑ Plumwood, V., Feminism and the Mastery of Nature (New York: Routledge, 1993).
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