Biography
Blanche Yurka was an American stage and film actress. Born Blanch Jurka on 19 June 1887 in St Paul, Minnesota, she trained as a singer at the Metropolitan Opera School and the Institute of Musical Art before making her Broadway debut in 1906. She became a leading interpreter of classical roles, including Queen Gertrude opposite John Barrymore in Hamlet and Gina in Ibsen’s The Wild Duck.
Yurka made her screen debut at the age of 47 as the vengeful revolutionary Madame De Farge in the 1935 MGM adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities. Her other film appearances include Aunt Bernarde Casterot in The Song of Bernadette (1943), Mama Tucker in The Southerner (1945) and roles in Keeper of the Flame (1943) and The Furies (1950). She also worked as a director and playwright, and published the acting manual Dear Audience (1959) and her autobiography Bohemian Girl (1970). She died in New York City on 6 June 1974.
