VERA HRUBA RALSTON
INFROMATION FROM IMDb
Date of birth
12 June 1921
Prague, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic) (some sources say 1919)
Date of death
9 February 2003
Santa Barbara, California, USA. (cancer)
Birth name
Vera Helena Hruba
Height
5' 5" (1.65 m)
Spouse
Charles de Alva (16 June 1973 - 9 February 2003) (her death)
Herbert J. Yates (March 1952 - 3 February 1966) (his death)
Sometimes Credited As:
Vera Hruba / Vera Hruba Ralston
Trivia
Vocals for Ms. Ralston's songs in films were dubbed by Robie Lester.
The surname Ralston was taken from the name of a popular breakfast cereal.
Interviewed by Johnny Carson on the old Tonight Show years ago, Maureen Stapleton was asked what she did to make herself feel better when she knew she'd given a bad performance. "I look through the TV Guide and try to find a Vera Hruba Ralston picture to watch," said Stapleton, "Because I know, no matter HOW bad a performance I may have given, I could NEVER as bad as she was!"
Much like the Susan Foster Kane character in Citizen Kane, Ralson is generally conceded to owe her "stardom" to being the personal "protege" of Republic Pictures studio head Herbert J. Yates. They were married in 1952. Significantly, she "retired" from the screen in 1958, the year Yates was deposed as head of the studio. They remained married until Yates' death in 1966, at which point Ralston inherited half of his $10 million estate.
Mini biography
After achieving modest fame as an ice skater, Vera Hruba was brought to America by Republic Pictures head Herbert Yates
who hoped to turn her into the next Sonja Henie. After featuring her in several Ice Capade movies,
he added Ralston to her name and tried to pass her off as a leading lady. Hruba's English was so limited she was forced to learn her lines phonetically.
Her English improved, and directors said she tried hard to learn her craft, but bad acting and a thick accent left her hard for audiences to accept.
Ray Hamel
Mini Biography-2
from Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia:
Few Hollywood personalities have been the butt of as many cruel jokes as this skating star, who was the latter-day "queen" of Republic Pictures
(and, according to some, one of the reasons for its demise in the 1950s). An Olympic athlete who competed with Sonja Henie in the 1936 games, she came to America to escape World War 2 and was hired by Republic to appear in Ice Capades (1941) and Ice Capades Revue (1942).
Republic president Herbert J. Yates, infatuated with the Slavic skater, signed her to a longterm contract and groomed her for stardom. With the addition of the surname "Ralston," she assumed leading-lady responsibilities in The Lady and the Monster (1944), followed by the wartime drama Storm Over Lisbon and the iceskating musical Lake Placid Serenade (both 1944). Ralston's thick accent and lack of training made her a target of critics from the first.
A defiant Yates insisted on pushing ahead, teaming her with the studio's top star, John Wayne, in Dakota (1945), then thrusting her into countless Westerns, thrillers, and costume dramas, on which he lavished huge (for Republic, at least) amounts of money. Ralston eventually became a passable actress, but she lacked warmth (or, perhaps, the ability to project it) and never won public acceptance. Yates virtually forced exhibitors to play her pictures by threatening to withhold other, more popular Republic products; his obstinacy, it is said, helped break the studio (in actuality, Republic's demise was more complex than that).
Ralston, who never appeared on-screen after Republic folded, married Yates in 1952 and stayed with him until he died.
Copyright © 1994 Leonard Maltin, used by arrangement with Signet, a division of Penguin Putnam, Inc.
Filmography
Actor
1. The Man Who Died Twice (1958) .... Lynn Brennon
2. The Notorious Mr. Monks (1958) .... Angela Monks
3. Gunfire at Indian Gap (1957) .... Cheel
4. Spoilers of the Forest (1957) .... Joan Milna
5. Accused of Murder (1956) .... Ilona Vance
6. Timberjack (1955) .... Lynne Tilton
7. Jubilee Trail (1954) .... Florinda Grove, aka Julie Latour
8. Fair Wind to Java (1953) .... Kim Kim
9. A Perilous Journey (1953) .... Francie Landreaux
10. Hoodlum Empire (1952) .... Marte Dufour
11. The Wild Blue Yonder (1951) .... Lt. Helen Landers
... aka Thunder Across the Pacific (UK)
12. Belle Le Grand (1951) .... Daisy Henshaw aka Belle Le Grand
13. Surrender (1950) .... Violet Barton
14. The Fighting Kentuckian (1949) .... Fleurette De Marchand
... aka A Strange Caravan
15. Angel on the Amazon (1948) (as Vera Hruba Ralston) .... Christine Ridgeway
... aka Drums Along the Amazon (UK)
... aka The Jungle Wilderness (USA: reissue title)
16. I, Jane Doe (1948) .... Annette Dubois/Jane Doe
... aka Diary of a Bride (UK)
17. The Flame (1947) .... Carlotta Novak
18. Wyoming (1947) .... Karen Alderson
19. Plainsman and the Lady (1946) .... Ann Arnesen
... aka Drumbeats Over Wyoming (USA: reissue title)
20. Murder in the Music Hall (1946) (as Vera Hruba Ralston) .... Lila
... aka Midnight Melody (USA: reissue title)
21. Dakota (1945) (as Vera Hruba Ralston) .... Sandy Poli (Devlin)
22. Lake Placid Serenade (1944) (as Vera Hruba Ralston) .... Vera Haschek
... aka Winter Serenade (USA: reissue title)
23. Storm Over Lisbon (1944) (as Vera Hruba Ralston) .... Maria Mazarek, aka Maritza
... aka Inside the Underworld (USA: reissue title)
24. The Lady and the Monster (1944) (as Vera Hruba Ralston) .... Janice Farrell
... aka Monster & Tiger Man (USA: reissue title)
... aka The Lady and the Doctor (UK)
... aka Tiger Man (USA: reissue title)
25. Ice-Capades Revue (1942) (as Vera Hruba) .... Ice-Capades Skater
... aka Ice-Capades
... aka Rhythm Hits the Ice (USA: reissue title)
26. Ice-Capades (1941) (as Vera Hruba) .... Ice-Capades Skater
... aka Music in the Moonlight (USA: reissue title)
