Jill Kraft
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Jill Kraft | |
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| Born | September 30, 1930 New York, USA |
| Died | June 25, 1970 (aged 39) |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Actress |
Jill Kraft (Sept. 30, 1930 — June 25, 1970) was an actress known for her roles on Broadway, in television and film: as Debbie Hirsch in Gertrude Berg’s Dear Me The Sky is Falling and subsequent How To Be a Jewish Mother comedy album,[1] Audrey Hepburn’s understudy in Gigi, [2] and starring as Amelia in Fay Kanin's Broadway play Goodbye My Fancy. [3]
Kraft was born to blacklisted screenwriter/playwright Hy Kraft who wrote Top Banana, Cafe Crown, and Stormy Weather, and Reata Lautterstein, interior decorator and costume designer for Three Husbands from 1950.[4] Kraft attended Beverly Hills High School and went straight into Broadway, performing in the 1950s in Goodbye My Fancy, Gigi, Time Out For Ginger[5] (both as an understudy), and Cyrano de Bergerac. Her biggest role was as Debbie Hirsch in Dear Me, The Sky is Falling and as Berg's daughter in How to Be A Jewish Mother from 1963, both of which contributed to the cultural caricature of the doting and overbearing Jewish mother.
Kraft had a prolific television career--in 1955, Kraft starred as Janet Spelding in Gore Vidal’s original Visit to a Small Planet for Goodyear Television Playhouse.[6] Kraft's role in the first appearance of the play as the ingenue daughter contributed to Visit to a Small Planet and its astute allegory for McCarthyism. Kraft appeared on nearly every single popular television playhouse: Starlight, Goodyear, Ponds Theater, Studio One, Colgate Comedy Hour, The Man Behind the Badge, The Red Button Show, and many others. Kraft made cameos in three 1950s Hollywood movies: Three Husbands, Take Care of My Little Girl, and Goodbye My Fancy--along with providing voiceover for Bridgette Bardot's role in Une Parisienne.[7]
Kraft died of cancer in 1970, leaving her parents Hy and Reata, daughter Lucy Herman (Moog),[8] and husband Leonard Herman.
References
- ↑ Berg, Gertrude (1965). "How to Be A Jewish Mother, 1965". Archive.org.
- ↑ Harris, Warren G. (1994). Audrey Hepburn: a biography. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 117. ISBN 9780671758004.
- ↑ Kanin, Fay. "Goodbye My Fancy playbill".
- ↑ Kraft, Reata. "Three Husbands". American FIlm Institute.
- ↑ "Legit Bits". No. December 1952. Variety.
- ↑ Vidal, Gore (1963). Best Television Plays. Ballantine Books. p. 221.
- ↑ Kraft, Jill (May 1958). "Soundtrack". Variety.
- ↑ "WEDDINGS; Lucy M. Herman, Matthew Moog". The New York Times. 11 September 1994.
External links
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