Ina Balin
Encyclopedia
Ina Balin was an American
actress on Broadway
and in film
.
Born as Ina Rosenberg to a Jewish family in Brooklyn
, she first appeared on television
on The Perry Como Show
. She also did summer stock, which led to roles on Broadway, and in 1959, she won the "Theatre World Award" for her performance in the Broadway comedy, A Majority of One, starring Gertrude Berg
and Sir Cedric Hardwicke
. That same year, she landed her first film role in The Black Orchid, starring Sophia Loren
and Anthony Quinn
.
A year later, Balin was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress — Motion Picture
for her performance opposite Paul Newman
in From the Terrace
. She also appeared in The Young Doctors
.
In 1961, she appeared as Pilar Graile in The Comancheros
with John Wayne
and Stuart Whitman
. Co-starring with Jerry Lewis
in the 1964 hit comedy The Patsy, Balin also had a secondary, but important part in 1965's The Greatest Story Ever Told
. She co-starred with Elvis Presley
in his 1969 film Charro!
Balin guest-starred on dozens of television shows, including Bonanza
, The Dick Van Dyke Show
, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
, Battlestar Galactica
, Get Smart
, Ironside
, Quincy, M.E.
and Magnum, P.I.
She appeared with Joseph Cotten
, Fernando Lamas
and Dean Jagger
in the 1969 made-for-television movie The Lonely Profession
.
In 1970, Balin toured Vietnam
with the USO
on the first of many trips to the war-torn region. She co-starred in the 1971 film The Projectionist
, which marked the screen debut of Rodney Dangerfield
. In 1975, she aided in the evacuation of orphans during the fall of Saigon
; eventually, she adopted
three of these orphaned children. In 1980, she played herself in a made-for-television movie based on these experiences, The Children of An Lac.
While working on The Children of An Lac, she became acquainted with Christy Marx, who at the time worked as a producer's liaison for various television programs. According to Marx, she used Balin's story as a basis for a character in the animated show Jem
when she later became a writer. The character of Ba Nee is based on Balin's adopted daughter, Ba-Nhi. Ba Nee's obsession with and struggle to find her birth father are the focus of several episodes of Jem. She co-starred in the comedy The Comeback Trail
with the lead actor and director from The Projectionist.
, at age 52 from pulmonary hypertension
brought on by coronary heart disease
. A single parent, she was survived by her three children, Nguyet Baty, Ba-Nhi Mai, and Kim Thuy.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actress on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
and in film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
.
Born as Ina Rosenberg to a Jewish family in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, she first appeared on television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
on The Perry Como Show
Perry Como
Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como was an American singer and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century he recorded exclusively for the RCA Victor label after signing with them in 1943. "Mr...
. She also did summer stock, which led to roles on Broadway, and in 1959, she won the "Theatre World Award" for her performance in the Broadway comedy, A Majority of One, starring Gertrude Berg
Gertrude Berg
Gertrude Berg was an American actress and screenwriter. A pioneer of classic radio, she was one of the first women to create, write, produce and star in a long-running hit when she premiered her serial comedy-drama The Rise of the Goldbergs , later known as The Goldbergs.-Career:Berg was born...
and Sir Cedric Hardwicke
Cedric Hardwicke
Sir Cedric Webster Hardwicke was a noted English stage and film actor whose career spanned nearly fifty years...
. That same year, she landed her first film role in The Black Orchid, starring Sophia Loren
Sophia Loren
Sophia Loren, OMRI is an Italian actress.In 1962, Loren won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Two Women, along with 21 awards, becoming the first actress to win an Academy Award for a non-English-speaking performance...
and Anthony Quinn
Anthony Quinn
Antonio Rodolfo Quinn-Oaxaca , more commonly known as Anthony Quinn, was a Mexican American actor, as well as a painter and writer...
.
A year later, Balin was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress — Motion Picture
Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture
The Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture was first awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in 1944 for a performance in a motion picture released in the previous year....
for her performance opposite Paul Newman
Paul Newman
Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver and auto racing enthusiast...
in From the Terrace
From the Terrace
From the Terrace is a 1960 American drama film directed by Mark Robson and starring Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Myrna Loy, Barbara Eden, Ina Balin, and Leon Ames....
. She also appeared in The Young Doctors
The Young Doctors (film)
The Young Doctors is a 1961 film directed by Phil Karlson and starring Ben Gazzara, Fredric March, Dick Clark, Ina Balin, Eddie Albert, Phyllis Love, Aline MacMahon, George Segal and Dolph Sweet. The film is based on the 1959 novel "The Final Diagnosis" by Arthur Hailey...
.
In 1961, she appeared as Pilar Graile in The Comancheros
The Comancheros
The Comancheros is a 1961 western Deluxe CinemaScope color film directed by Michael Curtiz and John Wayne based on a 1952 novel by Paul Wellman starring John Wayne and Stuart Whitman. When health troubles prevented Curtiz from finishing the film, Wayne directed the remainder of the movie, though...
with John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
and Stuart Whitman
Stuart Whitman
Stuart Maxwell Whitman is an American actor.Stuart Whitman is arguably best-known for playing Marshal Jim Crown in the western television series Cimarron Strip in 1967...
. Co-starring with Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis...
in the 1964 hit comedy The Patsy, Balin also had a secondary, but important part in 1965's The Greatest Story Ever Told
The Greatest Story Ever Told
The Greatest Story Ever Told is a 1965 American epic film produced and directed by George Stevens and distributed by United Artists. It is a retelling of the story of Jesus Christ, from the Nativity through the Resurrection. This film is notable for its large ensemble cast and for being the last...
. She co-starred with Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
in his 1969 film Charro!
Charro!
Charro! is a 1969 Western film starring Elvis Presley. It was his only role that didn't feature him singing on-screen, and is the only Presley film to feature no songs at all except for the main title theme. It also features a bearded Presley for the first and last time in any of his films.The film...
Balin guest-starred on dozens of television shows, including Bonanza
Bonanza
Bonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...
, The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Dick Van Dyke Show is an American television sitcom that initially aired on the Columbia Broadcasting System from October 3, 1961, until June 1, 1966. The show was created by Carl Reiner and starred Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore. It was produced by Reiner with Bill Persky and Sam Denoff....
, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is an American science fiction film, produced and directed by Irwin Allen, released by 20th Century Fox in 1961. The story was written by Irwin Allen and Charles Bennett. Walter Pidgeon starred as Admiral Harriman Nelson, with Robert Sterling as Captain Lee Crane...
, Battlestar Galactica
Battlestar Galactica (1978 TV series)
Battlestar Galactica is an American science fiction television series, created by Glen A. Larson. It starred Lorne Greene, Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict and ran for one season in 1978–79. After cancellation, its story was continued in 1980 as Galactica 1980 with Adama, Lieutenant Boomer and...
, Get Smart
Get Smart
Get Smart is an American comedy television series that satirizes the secret agent genre. Created by Mel Brooks with Buck Henry, the show starred Don Adams , Barbara Feldon , and Edward Platt...
, Ironside
Ironside (TV series)
Ironside is a Universal television series which ran on NBC from September 14, 1967 to January 16, 1975. The show starred Raymond Burr as the wheelchair-using Chief of Detectives, Robert T. Ironside. The character's debut was in a TV-movie on March 28, 1967. The original title of the show in the...
, Quincy, M.E.
Quincy, M.E.
Quincy, M.E., also called Quincy, is a United States television series from Universal Studios that aired from October 3, 1976, to September 5, 1983, on NBC...
and Magnum, P.I.
Magnum, P.I.
Magnum, P.I. is an American television series starring Tom Selleck as Thomas Magnum, a private investigator living on Oahu, Hawaii. The series ran from 1980 to 1988 in first-run broadcast on the American CBS television network....
She appeared with Joseph Cotten
Joseph Cotten
Joseph Cheshire Cotten was an American actor of stage and film. Cotten achieved prominence on Broadway, starring in the original productions of The Philadelphia Story and Sabrina Fair...
, Fernando Lamas
Fernando Lamas
Fernando Álvaro Lamas was an Argentine-born actor and director, and the father of actor Lorenzo Lamas.-Early life and career:...
and Dean Jagger
Dean Jagger
Dean Jagger was an Academy Award winning American film actor.-Career:Born Ira Dean Jagger in Columbus Grove, Ohio, Jagger made his film debut in The Woman from Hell with Mary Astor...
in the 1969 made-for-television movie The Lonely Profession
The Lonely Profession
The Lonely Profession was a made-for-television suspense film directed by Douglas Heyes. It was first broadcast October 21, 1969 on NBC.-Plot:...
.
In 1970, Balin toured Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
with the USO
United Service Organizations
The United Service Organizations Inc. is a private, nonprofit organization that provides morale and recreational services to members of the U.S. military, with programs in 160 centers worldwide. Since 1941, it has worked in partnership with the Department of Defense , and has provided support and...
on the first of many trips to the war-torn region. She co-starred in the 1971 film The Projectionist
The Projectionist (film)
The Projectionist is a 1971 film written and directed by Harry Hurwitz. It featured the film debut of Rodney Dangerfield. The film employs the use of superimposition of older films, the first time such techniques were used.-Plot:...
, which marked the screen debut of Rodney Dangerfield
Rodney Dangerfield
Rodney Dangerfield , was an American comedian, and actor, known for the catchphrases "I don't get no respect!," "No respect, no respect at all... that's the story of my life" or "I get no respect, I tell ya" and his monologues on that theme...
. In 1975, she aided in the evacuation of orphans during the fall of Saigon
Fall of Saigon
The Fall of Saigon was the capture of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, by the People's Army of Vietnam and the National Liberation Front on April 30, 1975...
; eventually, she adopted
Adoption
Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents...
three of these orphaned children. In 1980, she played herself in a made-for-television movie based on these experiences, The Children of An Lac.
While working on The Children of An Lac, she became acquainted with Christy Marx, who at the time worked as a producer's liaison for various television programs. According to Marx, she used Balin's story as a basis for a character in the animated show Jem
Jem (TV series)
Jem, also known as Jem and the Holograms, is an American animated television series that ran from 1985 to 1988 in U.S. first-run syndication...
when she later became a writer. The character of Ba Nee is based on Balin's adopted daughter, Ba-Nhi. Ba Nee's obsession with and struggle to find her birth father are the focus of several episodes of Jem. She co-starred in the comedy The Comeback Trail
The Comeback Trail
The Comeback Trail is a 1982 film directed by Harry Hurwitz. The film features several cameos playing themselves such as Hugh Hefner.-Plot:...
with the lead actor and director from The Projectionist.
Death
Balin died on June 20, 1990, in New Haven, ConnecticutNew Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
, at age 52 from pulmonary hypertension
Pulmonary hypertension
In medicine, pulmonary hypertension is an increase in blood pressure in the pulmonary artery, pulmonary vein, or pulmonary capillaries, together known as the lung vasculature, leading to shortness of breath, dizziness, fainting, and other symptoms, all of which are exacerbated by exertion...
brought on by coronary heart disease
Coronary heart disease
Coronary artery disease is the end result of the accumulation of atheromatous plaques within the walls of the coronary arteries that supply the myocardium with oxygen and nutrients. It is sometimes also called coronary heart disease...
. A single parent, she was survived by her three children, Nguyet Baty, Ba-Nhi Mai, and Kim Thuy.