YURKA, BLANCHE

(1893-1974)

The versatile, well-respected Czech-born stage actress played a range of classic and contemporary roles, preferring classics and the realistic dramas of Henrik Ibsen and George Bernard Shaw to commercial entertainments. Although she studied for opera, Yurka began an acting career in 1907 under the guidance of producerDavid Belasco. She landed her first significant role inIs Matrimony a Failure? (1909) with Jane Cowl. Yurka scored a notable success as Gertrude oppositeJohnBarrymore's Hamlet in 1922, subsequently playing serious roles like Gina in a 1925 production of Ibsen'sThe Wild Duck. Among Yurka's New York appearances, some of which she also directed, areMan and the Masses(1924),The Goat Song(1926),The Squall(1926),Hedda Gabler(1929),The Lady from the Sea(1929),The Vikings(1929),Electra(1932), andTroilus and Cressida(1932). Yurka made her last Broadway appearance in a short-lived 1966 revival ofDinner at Eight* and also appeared in motion pictures (and television*) beginning in the silent era. Although she never attained the fame of her contemporaries Katharine Cornell, Helen Hayes, or Tallulah Bankhead, Yurka had a long career distinguished by her versatility.