Blanche Baker

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American actress (born 1956)

title: "Blanche Baker" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1956-births", "actresses-from-new-york-city", "american-film-actresses", "american-people-of-czech-jewish-descent", "american-stage-actresses", "american-television-actresses", "jewish-american-actresses", "living-people", "primetime-emmy-award-winners", "wellesley-college-alumni", "lee-strasberg-theatre-and-film-institute-alumni", "20th-century-american-actresses", "21st-century-american-actresses", "21st-century-american-jews"] description: "American actress (born 1956)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blanche_Baker" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American actress (born 1956) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]

Field	Value
name	Blanche Baker
image	Blache Baker (47948022618).jpg
caption	Baker in 2019
birth_name	Blanche Garfein
birth_date
birth_place	New York City, U.S.
years_active	1978–present
parents	Carroll Baker (mother)
Jack Garfein (father)
relatives	Herschel Garfein (brother)
occupation	Actress
spouse	{{plainlist
* {{marriage	Bruce Van Dusen
children	4
::

| name = Blanche Baker | image = Blache Baker (47948022618).jpg | caption = Baker in 2019 | birth_name = Blanche Garfein | birth_date = | birth_place = New York City, U.S. | years_active = 1978–present | parents = Carroll Baker (mother) Jack Garfein (father) | relatives = Herschel Garfein (brother) | occupation = Actress | spouse = {{plainlist|

| children = 4

Blanche Baker (born December 20, 1956 See also:

) is an American actress. She won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by a Supporting Actress for her work in the television miniseries 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.

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 was Jewish and 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 Overseas School of Rome and then Wellesley College from 1974 to 1976. She later studied acting at the Herbert Berghof Studio and the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute.

Career

Television

Blanche Baker made her television debut playing the character Anna Weiss in the miniseries Holocaust. (Her father Jack Garfein been imprisoned in Auschwitz.) She won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by a Supporting Actress 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

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Blanche_Baker_and_Donald_Sutherland_in_Lolita_rehearsal,_cropped.jpg" caption="Lolita]]'' rehearsal, New York City"] ::

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.

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

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

Film

Baker made her movie debut in the political drama The Seduction of Joe Tynan (1979). Other film appearances include Sixteen Candles (1984), Cold Feet (1984), Taking Chance (2009) and The Girl Next Door (2007).

Personal life

Baker married movie director Bruce vanDusen on October 1, 1983. They had three children before divorcing in 2002.

Baker remarried in 2003, to Mark McGill. They have one son.

Filmography

Film

::data[format=table]

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1979	French Postcards	Laura
1979	**	Janet
1982	The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet	Juliet
1983	Cold Feet	Leslie Christo
1984	Sixteen Candles	Ginny Baker
1986	Raw Deal	Amy Kaminski
1988	Shakedown	Gail Feinberger
1988	Bum Rap	Lisa DuSoir
1990	**	Ofglen
1991	Livin' Large	Kate Penndragin
1994	Dead Funny	Barbara
2006	Underdogs	Marie
2006	**	Marie	Short film
2007	**	Ruth Chandler
2008	3rd of July	Mrs. Shaw	Short film
2008	Jersey Justice	Polly O'Bannon
2009	Science Fair (Or: Migratory Patterns & the Flight of the March Brown Mayfly)	Mom	Short film
2009	Jackrabbit Sky	Evelyn Boden
2010	An Affirmative Act	Lori Belmont
2010	Three Chris's	Dolores Kelly
2011	Fake	Mrs. Needham
2011	The Grand Theft	Barbara Blushe
2011	The Life Zone	Dr. Victoria Wise
2011	Whisper Me a Lullaby	Aunt Jane
2011	Untitled Folder	Mom	Short film
2011	Hell Grace	Mother	Short film
2012	Hypothermia	Hellen Pelletier
2012	Ruth Madoff Occupies Wall Street	Ruth Madoff	Short film
2012	The Coffee Klash	Gayle	Short film
2012	Curiosity Killed the Cat	Gayle
2013	Truth	Dr. Carter Moore
2013	Classless	Principle Saunders	Short film
2013	Scallywag	Mom	Short film
2014	Deep in the Darkness	Zellis
2014	The Coffee Shop	Gayle
2014	Lady Peacock	Angie
2015	Chasing Yesterday	Linda
2017	Coin Heist	Mrs. Cunningham
2017	Splitting Image	Karen
2018	My Daughter Vanished	Helen
2019	Zoe	Zoe's Mother	Short film
2021	Alice Fades Away	Roxy
2023	Perception	Margaret	Short film
::

Television

::data[format=table]

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1978	Holocaust	Anna Weiss	Television mini-series; Outstanding Single Performance by a Supporting Actress
1979	Mary and Joseph: A Story of Faith	Mary	Television film
1981	**	Candra Torres	Television film
1982	**	Joan Slezsak	Television film
1985	**	Allison Webster	Episode: "Desperately"
1985	Embassy	Megan Hillyer	Television film
1986	Nobody's Child	Shari	Television film
1987	Spenser: For Hire	Carolyn Tomlinson	Episode: "Personal Demons"
1991	**	Unknown	Episode: "Domestic Silence"
1991	Davis Rules	Cindy	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	Television film
2013	The Chris Gethard Show	Herself	Episode: "#119: Scare the Shit Out of Bethany"
2014	Wishin' and Hopin'	Sister Filomena	Television film
::

As director

2017 - Streetwrite
2019 - Make America Safe

References

"Ruth Madoff Occupies Wall Street — van Nguyen".
(February 2012). "Alumni News". AOSR Falcon Flyer.
Lynch, Jason. [http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20136494,00.html "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."
[https://hbstudio.org/about-hb-studio/alumni/ HB Studio Alumni]
[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=lfswAAAAIBAJ&sjid=xeAFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2908%2C2360329 "'Mary and Joseph' Filming"]. ''The Kentucky New Era''. July 24, 1979. Retrieved 6 May 2015.
Devries, Hillary. (March 3, 1981). "Protesters to picket 'Lolita'". Christian Science Monitor.
"Lolita". Internet Broadway Database.
Rich, Frank. "STAGE: ALBEE'S ADAPTATION OF 'LOLITA' OPENS". The New York Times.
Donovan, Mark. "Lolita, Broadway's Bomb of the Year, Detonates Edward Albee, Bemuses Donald Sutherland and Illuminates a Lovely Survivor, Blanche Baker". Time-Life.
(March 27, 1987). "Stage: 'Steel Magnolias,' A Louisiana Story". The New York Times.
(1983-10-02). "Blanche Baker Becomes Bride". The New York Times.
(2021-10-11). "'Sixteen Candles' Cast: Where Are They Now?".
"NEW YORK SHORT FILM FESTIVAL BLOCK 10".

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