Vera Ralston

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Vera Ralston (1919-February 9, 2003), was an American actress during the 1940s and 1950s.

Born Věra Helena Hrubá to a wealthy jeweler in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Her age is uncertain; Ralston at various times gave 1919, 1920, and 1923 as her year of birth. Ralston gained fame in the 1930s as a figure skater, where she competed in the 1936 Winter Olympics against gold medalist Sonja Henie. During the games she personally met and insulted Adolf Hitler.^[1] Hitler asked her if she would like to "skate for the swastika." As she later recalled, "I looked him right in the eye, and said that I'd rather skate on the swastika. The Führer was livid."^[2]

Hruba emigrated to the United States in the early 1940s and became a naturalized citizen in 1946. She moved to Hollywood with her mother and signed a contract in 1943 with Republic Pictures. Ralston later married the head of the studio Herbert J. Yates in 1952. Yates was nearly 40 years her senior, and had left his wife and children to be with Ralston. Yates used his position to obtain roles for Ralston, and at one point was sued by studio shareholders for using company assets to promote his wife.

Ralston normally played the immigrant girl in films because of her limited English skills. Among the 26 films Ralston started were Storm Over Lisbon with Erich von Stroheim (1944), Dakota (1945) and The Fighting Kentuckian with John Wayne (1949), A Perilous Journey with David Brian (1953) and Fair Wind To Java with Fred MacMurray (1953). In this film, her character, Kim Kim, is whipped by boxer-turned-actor Buddy Baer. She retired from films in 1958.

Yates died in 1966, leaving to Ralston his $10 million estate. Ralston suffered a nervous breakdown shortly thereafter. Ralston died on February 9, 2003, Santa Barbara, California, after a long battle with cancer.

For her work in films, Ralston has a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The authors of the book The Golden Turkey Awards nominated her for the dubious honor of "The Worst Actress of All Time," along with Candice Bergen and Mamie Van Doren. They all lost to Raquel Welch.