Blanche Baker

Blanche Baker (born December 20, 1956) is an American actress and filmmaker. She won an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her work in the television mini-series Holocaust. Baker is known for her role as Ginny Baker in Sixteen Candles; she also starred in the title role of Lolita on Broadway. In 2012, she produced and starred in a film about Ruth Madoff titled Ruth Madoff Occupies Wall Street.[1]

Blanche Baker
Blanche Baker in a 2007 performance of The Vietnamization of New Jersey
Born	Blanche Garfein December 20, 1956 New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1978–present
Spouse(s)	Bruce Van Dusen ​ ​ (m. 1983; div. 2002)​ Mark Magill ​ (m. after 2003)​
Children	4
Relatives	Carroll Baker (mother) Jack Garfein (father)

Early life and education

Born Blanche Garfein in New York City, she is the daughter of actress Carroll Baker and director Jack Garfein. Her father is a Jew from Carpathian Ruthenia (born in Mukachevo), who survived the Holocaust; and her mother was a Roman Catholic who converted to Judaism. She also has a younger brother, Herschel Garfein. She spent her early life in Italy, where her mother had established a film career after leaving Hollywood in the mid-1960s. Baker attended the American School in Rome and then Wellesley College from 1974 to 1976,[2] and later studied acting at the Herbert Berghof Studio[3] and the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute.[4]

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.

Theatre

In 1980-81, she originated the lead role in Edward Albee's stage adaptation 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.[5]

The troubled production opened on Broadway on March 19, 1981, after 31 previews and closed after only 12 performances.[6] 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."[7]

People Magazine called Albee's Lolita "Broadway's Bomb of the Year" in an April 16, 1981, story.[8] 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."

Baker originated the role of Shelby in the first production of Steel Magnolias Off-Broadway in 1987.[9]

Film

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

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1979	French Postcards	Laura
1979	The Seduction of Joe Tynan	Janet
1982	The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet	Juliet
1983	Cold Feet	Leslie Christo
1984	Sixteen Candles	Ginny
1986	Raw Deal	Amy Kaminski
1988	Shakedown	Gail Feinberger
1988	Bum Rap	Lisa DuSoir
1990	The Handmaid's Tale	Ofglen
1991	Livin' Large	Kate Penndragin
1994	Dead Funny	Barbara
2006	Underdogs	Marie
2006	The Rehearsal	Marie
2007	The Girl Next Door	Ruth Chandler
2008	3rd of July	Mrs. Shaw
2008	Jersey Justice	Polly O'Bannon
2012	Hypothermia	Hellen Pelletier
2014	Wishin' and Hopin'	Sister Filomena	TV Movie

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1979	Holocaust	Anna Weiss	Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie
1979	Mary and Joseph: A Story of Faith	Mary
1981	The Awakening of Candra	Candra Torres
1982	The Day the Bubble Burst	Joan Slezsak
1985	The Equalizer	Allison Webster	Episode: "Desperately"
1985	Embassy	Megan Hillyer
1986	Nobody's Child	Shari
1987	Spenser: For Hire	Carolyn Tomlinson	Episode: "Personal Demons"
1991	The Trials of Rosie O'Neill		Episode: "Domestic Silence"
1991	Davis Rules		Episode: "Everybody Comes to Nick's"
1992	In the Heat of the Night	Jenny Sawyer	Episode: "Love, Honor & Obey"
1992	Law & Order	Lucy Neven	Episode: "Star Struck"
1994	Clarissa Explains It All	Chelsea Chipley	Episode: "Janet and Clarissa, Inc."
2005	Law & Order: Criminal Intent	Miriam Engles	Episode: "Diamond Dogs"
2009	Taking Chance	Chris Phelps
2013	The Chris Gethard Show	Herself	Episode: "#119: Scare the Shit Out of Bethany"

As director

• 2017 - Streetwrite
• 2019 - Make America Safe[10]

References

1. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on December 29, 2016. Retrieved December 29, 2016.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
2. Lynch, Jason. "Her Bronze Mettle: Following Her Turn in Sixteen Candles, Blanche Baker Sculpted a Life Beyond Hollywood". People Magazine. March 4, 2002. Retrieved 6 May 2015. "Baker returned to the U.S. and enrolled at Wellesley College in 1974 but got the acting bug and dropped out two years later to study both art and acting in New York City."
3. HB Studio Alumni
4. "'Mary and Joseph' Filming". The Kentucky New Era. July 24, 1979. Retrieved 6 May 2015.
5. Devries, Hillary. "Protesters to picket 'Lolita'". Christian Science Monitor. Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved December 29, 2011.
6. "Lolita". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved December 29, 2011.
7. Rich, Frank. "STAGE: ALBEE'S ADAPTATION OF 'LOLITA' OPENS". The New York Times. Retrieved December 29, 2011.
8. 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 December 29, 2011.
9. https://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/27/theater/stage-steel-magnolias-a-louisiana-story.html
10. "NEW YORK SHORT FILM FESTIVAL BLOCK 10". cinemavillage.com. Retrieved November 9, 2019.

External links

• Blanche Baker at IMDb
• Blanche Baker at AllMovie