Blanche Baker

Blanche Baker
Blanche Baker in a 2007 performance of The Vietnamization of New Jersey
Born	Blanche Garfein (1956-12-20) December 20, 1956 New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1978–present
Spouse(s)	Bruce Van Dusen (m. 1983–2002) Mark Magill (m. 2003)
Children	Zane Van Dusen Dara Van Dusen Wynn Van Dusen James Magill

Blanche Baker (born December 20, 1956) is an American actress.

Personal life

Born Blanche Garfein in New York City, she is the daughter of actress Carroll Baker and director Jack Garfein, a Czech Jew and a survivor of the Holocaust. She attended Wellesley College from 1974 until 1976.

Career

Television

Blanche Baker made her television debut playing the character Anna Weiss in the miniseries Holocaust. (Her father Jack Garfein was a Holocaust survivor who had been imprisoned in Auschwitz. She won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Comedy or Drama Series in 1978 for her performance.

She has subsequently appeared in the TV movies Mary and Joseph: A Story of Faith (1979) as Mary, The Day the Bubble Burst (1982), The Awakening of Candra (1983) as Candra Torres, Embassy (1985), Nobody's Child (1986), and Taking Chance (2009). She also has appeared on many TV series.

Broadway

In 1980-81, she originated the lead role of a 12-year-old girl loved by a pedophile in Edward Albee's stage adaption of Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita. During out-of-town tryouts and in New York, the play was picketed by feminists, including Women Against Pornography, who were outraged by the theme of pedophilia.^[1]

The troubled production opened on Broadway on March 19, 1981 after 31 previews and closed after only 12 performances.^[2] Frank Rich of the New York Times gave the play a bad review, terming it "the kind of embarrassment that audiences do not quickly forget or forgive." Baker was mentioned by Rich in only one line. "In the title role, here a minor figure, the 24-year-old Miss Baker does a clever job of impersonating the downy nymphet; she deserves a more substantial stage vehicle soon."^[3]

People Magazine called Albee's Lolita "Broadway's Bomb of the Year" in an April 16, 1981 story.^[4] Baker was the real subject of the article, and People writer Mark Donovan said "the critics were almost unanimous on one point: Blanche Baker was an ingenue whose time had come," citing reviews of critics that had called her "Breathtaking" and "Beguiling."

However, despite the praise of critics, Baker has never appeared on Broadway again.

Film

Baker made her movie debut in the The Seduction of Joe Tynan (1979). Other film appearances include Sixteen Candles (1984), Cold Feet (1984) and Taking Chance (2009).

Filmography

References

1. ↑ Devries, Hillary. "Protesters to picket 'Lolita'". Christian Science Monitor. Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 29 December 2011. 
2. ↑ "Lolita". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 29 December 2011. 
3. ↑ Rich, Frank. "STAGE: ALBEE'S ADAPTATION OF 'LOLITA' OPENS". New York Times. Retrieved 29 December 2011. 
4. ↑ Donovan, Mark. "Lolita, Broadway's Bomb of the Year, Detonates Edward Albee, Bemuses Donald Sutherland and Illuminates a Lovely Survivor, Blanche Baker". Time-Life. Retrieved 29 December 2011. 

External links

• Blanche Baker at the Internet Movie Database
• Blanche Baker at AllRovi