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Blanche Baker

Blanche Baker has built a career across film, television and theatre, moving between prominent early roles, ensemble movies and stage work. Born Blanche Garfein in New York City on December 20, 1956, she is the daughter of actress Carroll Baker and director Jack Garfein. She spent part of her early life in Italy, where her mother had established a film career, before attending Wellesley College and studying acting at the Herbert Berghof Studio and the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. Baker’s television debut was substantial: she played Anna Weiss in the 1978 miniseries Holocaust. The performance earned her the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by a Supporting Actress. She went on to appear in television films including Mary and Joseph: A Story of Faith, The Awakening of Candra, Nobody’s Child and Taking Chance. Her movie debut came in the 1979 political drama The Seduction of Joe Tynan. For many filmgoers, however, one of her most familiar appearances is as Ginny Baker in Sixteen Candles, part of the family orbit surrounding the film’s anxious teenage heroine. Her other screen credits include Cold Feet, The Girl Next Door and the film version of Taking Chance. Theatre has been another important part of Baker’s work. In 1980–81, she originated the title role in Edward Albee’s stage adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita. The Broadway production was short-lived and controversial, but Baker’s performance drew favorable attention from critics. In 1987, she originated the role of Shelby in the first Off-Broadway production of Steel Magnolias, placing her at the beginning of a play that would become widely known beyond that original staging. Baker’s work also extends behind the camera through screenwriting, producing and directing. Taken together, her career reflects an actor comfortable moving among television drama, film comedy, independent-minded material and the stage.