Janet Beecher

Beecher, Janet [née Meysenburg] (1884–1955), actress. She was born in Jefferson City, Missouri, and was raised in Chicago where her father was German vice‐consul. After schooling in Chicago and New York, Beecher made her professional debut in a walk‐on role on Broadway in 1903. But she gained attention the next year as the newly wealthy Ida Pipp in The Education of Mr. Pipp and played it for two seasons. Among her notable parts were Helen Heyer, who wins her man in a raffle, in The Lottery Man (1909); the uncomplaining wife Helen Arany of a temperamental genius in The Concert (1910); the outgoing wife Laura Bartlett in Fair and Warmer (1915); Margaret Fairfield, who is caught between an old love and a new one, in A Bill of Divorcement (1921); and the widow Mary Colebrook who stands by her illegitimate son in Courage (1928). After spending the 1930s in films she scored one final success as Catherine, wife of The Late George Apley (1944). Despite playing leading roles on Broadway for more than twenty years, Beecher never achieved star status.