[Deathwatch] Vera Hruba Ralston, ice skater and actress, 79

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Vera Hruba Ralston

Vampish actor skating on thin ice in America

Ronald Bergan
Friday February 28, 2003

There were few Hollywood actors of the studio era who suffered from as
many snide remarks as the Czech-born ice-skater-turned-star Vera Hruba
Ralston, who has died aged 81. This was not only because her acting was
rather wooden, and her accent thick, but because she was married to
Herbert J Yates, the head of Republic Pictures, the man who foisted her
on an unwilling public.

Her performance improved slightly from picture to picture, whether in
thrillers, romances, westerns or costume dramas, but she was never a
box-office attraction. Yates's fixation was such that he forced
exhibitors to run her films by threatening to withhold more popular
Republic products from them; it was one of the reasons for the studio's
demise.

She first caught Yates's attention in 1939 when she toured the US with
a show called Ice Vanities. As Vera Hruba, she had won a silver medal
at the 1937 Berlin Olympics; she had gone to America with her mother
after the Nazis invaded Prague.

In 1941, Yates cast Vera - and the entire company of Ice-Capades - in a
film of the same name, an inconsequential musical which revolved around
skating numbers. This was followed by Ice-Capades Revue a year later.
Then, in 1943, Yates signed Hruba to a long-term contract, adding
Ralston to her name. Four years later, at 67, he left his wife and
children for the 27-year-old, before marrying her in 1952. He had hoped
that Ralston would rival Henie, at 20th Century Fox, billing her as a
star who "skated out of Czechoslovakia into the hearts of America". But
after Lake Placid Serenade (1944), she was rarely seen on ice.

Her first real acting role was opposite Erich Von Stroheim and Richard
Arlen in The Lady And The Monster (1944), all three of them appearing
in Storm Over Lisbon the same year. Still in the B-movie category was
Dakota (1945), in which Ralston waited patiently at home while husband
John Wayne settled railroad disputes. She co-starred with Wayne again
in The Fighting Kentuckian (1949).

Mainly, Ralston was confined to more than a dozen films made by
Republic's journeyman director Joseph Kane. According to Kane, "Vera
could have made it rough on everyone, but she never took advantage of
that situation. Although she never became a good actress, she was
cooperative, hardworking and eager to please."

Despite this, it was reported that Wayne threatened to leave the studio
if forced to work with Ralston again, and Sterling Hayden was offered a
bonus to appear opposite her in Timberjack (1955).

Kane directed Ralston in perhaps her best film, Fair Wind To Java
(1953), a good adventure yarn with Fred MacMurray as a cynical captain,
who falls for native girl Ralston while in search of south seas
treasure. The fact that she had a Czech accent was not explained.

In 1956, two Republic stockholders filed a lawsuit against Yates for
using company assets to promote his wife as a star, and giving her
brother producer status at a salary far beyond his worth. Two years
later, Yates had to relinquish his post, and Ralston retired. When he
died in 1966, Yates left his wife half of his estate, valued at more
than $10m. In 1973, she married businessman Charles DeAlva, 11 years
her junior, who survives her.

Vera Hruba Ralston, ice skater and actor, born June 12 1921; died
February 9 2003

The following corrections were added Monday March 24 2003

In the above article, we said that Vera Hruba Ralston had won the
silver medal for figure skating at the 1937 Berlin olympics. We were
wrong on three counts: the games were in 1936; the winter sports were
held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, not Berlin; and Ms Hruba came 17th, not
second. The silver was won by Cecilia Colledge of Britain.