Verna Frances Bloom (August 7, 1938 – January 9, 2019) was an American actress.

Early life

Verna Frances Bloom, born on August 7, 1938, in

Lynn, Massachusetts Lynn is the eighth-largest List of municipalities in Massachusetts, municipality in Massachusetts, United States, and the largest city in Essex County, Massachusetts, Essex County. Situated on the Atlantic Ocean, north of the Boston city line ...

, grew up in a Russian Jewish family where her father, Milton, operated a grocery store. Her mother, Sara (Damsky) Bloom, initially focused on managing their household. After Milton and Sara divorced, Sara took charge of the family grocery business and later transitioned to bookkeeping for a trucking company. She graduated from

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

and later studied at the Herbert Berghof Studio for actors in New York.

Career

On Broadway, Bloom portrayed

Charlotte Corday Marie-Anne Charlotte de Corday d'Armont (27 July 1768 – 17 July 1793), known simply as Charlotte Corday (), was a figure of the French Revolution who assassinated revolutionary and Jacobins, Jacobin leader Jean-Paul Marat on 13 July 1793. Cor ...

in '' The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade'' (1967) and Blanche Morton in '' Brighton Beach Memoirs'' (1983). She made her film debut in '' Medium Cool'', and then co-starred in

Clint Eastwood Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western (genre), Western TV series ''Rawhide (TV series), Rawhide'', Eastwood rose to international fame with his role as the "Ma ...

's 1973 film, ''

High Plains Drifter ''High Plains Drifter'' is a 1973 American Western film directed by Clint Eastwood, written by Ernest Tidyman, and produced by Robert Daley for The Malpaso Company and Universal Pictures. The film stars Eastwood as a mysterious stranger who ...

'' and in the 1974 made-for-TV movie '' Where Have All The People Gone?'' with

Peter Graves Peter Graves (born Peter Duesler Aurness; March 18, 1926 – March 14, 2010) was an American actor who portrayed Jim Phelps in the television series ''Mission: Impossible (1966 TV series), Mission: Impossible'' from 1967 to 1973 and in its reviv ...

and

Kathleen Quinlan Kathleen Denise Quinlan (born November 19, 1954) is an American film and television actress. She is best known for her Golden Globe-nominated performance in the 1977 film of the novel ''I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (film), I Never Promised ...

. Bloom also had roles in more than 30 films and

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

episodes beginning the 1960s, including playing Mary, mother of

Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

, in '' The Last Temptation of Christ'' in 1988 and Marion Wormer in ''

Animal House ''National Lampoon's Animal House'' is a 1978 American comedy film directed by John Landis and written by Harold Ramis, Douglas Kenney and Chris Miller (writer), Chris Miller. It stars John Belushi, Tim Matheson, John Vernon, Verna Bloom, Tom ...

'' in 1978.

Personal life and death

Bloom was born in

, and attended the School of Fine Arts at

, graduating with a BFA in 1959. She also studied at the

HB Studio The HB Studio (Herbert Berghof Studio) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization offering professional training in the performing arts through classes, workshops, free lectures, theater productions, theater rentals, a theater artist residency prog ...

in New York City. Bloom married Richard Collier, but they separated by 1969. They began the Trident Theater in Denver Colorado, which operated from 1963 to 1965. In 1972 she married film critic

Jay Cocks John C. "Jay" Cocks Jr. (born January 12, 1944) is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is a graduate of Kenyon College. Bloom died aged 80 on January 9, 2019, in

Bar Harbor, Maine Bar Harbor () is a resort town on Mount Desert Island in Hancock County, Maine, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population is 5,089. The town is home to the College of the Atlantic, Jackson Laboratory, and MDI Biological Laborat ...

, from complications of

dementia Dementia is a syndrome associated with many neurodegenerative diseases, characterized by a general decline in cognitive abilities that affects a person's ability to perform activities of daily living, everyday activities. This typically invo ...

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* * * 1938 births 2019 deaths American film actresses Jewish American actresses Actresses from Lynn, Massachusetts Boston University College of Fine Arts alumni 20th-century American actresses 21st-century American actresses American stage actresses 21st-century American Jews {{US-film-actor-1930s-stub