Blanche Yurka (1887-1974) was an actress born in St Paul, Minnesota. She was also an opera singer when she made her debut as a character actor on Broadway in 1910. Turning to the screen, she is most remembered for the role as the vicious Madame Defarge in "A Tale of Two Cities" (1935). Among her many film credits were "Song of Bernadette" (1943), "A Night to Remember" (1943) and "13 Rue Madeleine" (1947). After feature films, she remained active in theatre until the late 1960s and was also married briefly to actor Ian Keith.
Discipline:
Interdisciplinary Art
Blanche Yurka
Discipline:
Interdisciplinary Art
MacDowell Fellowships: 1960
Studios
Phi Beta
Blanche Yurka worked in the Phi Beta studio.
Funded by the Phi Beta Fraternity, a national professional fraternity of music and speech founded in 1912, Phi Beta Studio was built between 1929–1931 of granite quarried on the MacDowell grounds. The small studio is a simple in design, but displays a pleasing combination of materials with its granite walls and colorful slate roofing. Inside is…