Patti Josephs

A carte-de-visite portrait of the British actress and singer Patti Josephs (1849-1876), sister of the actress Fanny Josephs.

According to the 1871 census, at which time she was unmarried and lodging in Chelsea, she was born in Scotland. She described herself as an ‘Actress’ and gave her age as 22, which would mean that she was born in or about 1849.

‘DEATH OF MISS PATTI JOSEPHS — London playgoers will deeply regret to hear of the death of this young and charming actress, who expired at Philadelphia on the 5th of October, under circumstances of an exceedingly painful kind, which will be detailed below by an American correspondent. Readily may be recalled a bright series of impersonations embodied during the last dozen years at the St James’s, Olympic, Adelphi, and other Theatres. More especially will Miss Eliza Stuart Patti Josephs be remembered as the representative of Cupid in Cupid and Psyche at the Olympic, and afterwards at the same Theatre in Mr Halliday’s drama Little Em’ly, where she played “Little Em’ly” with a prettiness and pathos which won the warmest sympathy of the audience. After this most successful performance Miss Patti Joseph left these shores to fulfil an engagement in America, where she married Mr John Fitzpatrick, an actor well known in this country and much esteemed by all who enjoyed his friendship in America. Scarcely twenty-seven when she died, the young actress has prematurely closed a career which promised brilliant results.

‘Miss Patti Josephs had been confined to her residence for the past eight months with a complication of diseases, and on the evening of the 4th inst. she fell out of the third-storey window of the building where she resided, at Eleventh and Locust-streets, Philadelphia, and, striking her head, sustained such severe injuries that she died shortly after being conveyed to the Pennsylvania Hospital. It is believed that, while temporarily insane from pain, she leaned out of the window, and, losing her balance, met with the sad accident that resulted in her death. She came of an old theatrical family, her father, the late Mr W.H. Josephs, having been a Manager of several Theatres in London and the Provinces, while her grandfather had managed a theatrical circuit in England. She was a sister of Mr Harry Josephs, the well-known comedian, and of the late Mr John H. Selwyn. Her sister Fanny is also an actress. Another one of her brothers is a well-known minister in Boston — the Rev. G.C. Lorimer of the Union Temple Church, in that city. Miss Patti Josephs made her first appearance in America at the Chestnut-street Theatre, Philadelphia, on the 14th of October, 1872, in Bronson Howard’s comedy of Diamonds, and became a member of of the stock company at that Theatre. Miss Josephs next played at Fox’s American Theatre, Philadelphia, with Colville’s burlesque troupe, which included Harry Beckett, Willian Edouin, and Eliza Weathersby, and which opened there May 19th, 1873. In December, 1874, Miss Josephs and her husband became members of the stock company at Fox’s American Theatre, where they have remained ever since. She last appeared at Fox’s in The Hidden Hand, about the 21st of February, 1876. The funeral took place on Sunday afternoon, October 8th, and the body was interred at Mount Moriah Cemetery, a large number of members of the dramatic profession attending the funeral (The Era, 29 October 1876).

Photographed by Hyman Davis of 35 Bruton Street, London.