Vera Ralston was a Czechfigure skater and actress. She later became a naturalized American citizen. She worked as an actress during the 1940s and 1950s.
Early life
Ralston was born Věra Helena Hrubá in Prague to a Catholic family with a home on the Berounka River. Her father, Rudolf Hrubá, was a jeweler. Her year of birth has been given as 1919, 1920, 1921, and 1923. Her brother, Rudy Ralston, later became a film producer in the United States.
Skating career
As a figure skater, she represented Czechoslovakia in competition under her birth nameVěra Hrubá. She competed at the 1936 European Figure Skating Championships and placed 15th. Later that season, she competed at the 1936 Winter Olympics, where she placed 17th. During the games, she personally met and reportedly insulted Adolf Hitler. Hitler asked her if she would like to "skate for the swastika." As she later boasted, "I looked him right in the eye, and said that I'd rather skate on the swastika. The Führer was furious." Hrubá competed at the 1937 European Figure Skating Championships and placed 7th. She emigrated to the United States in 1941 and became a naturalized citizen in 1946.
Results
Acting career
She moved to Hollywood with her mother and signed a contract in 1943 with Republic Pictures. During her career she was known as Vera Hrubá Ralston and Vera Hruba Ralston, and, later, simply as Vera Ralston. She normally played an immigrant girl, because of her limited English skills. Among the 26 films Ralston starred in were Storm Over Lisbon with Erich von Stroheim, Dakota with John Wayne, I, Jane Doe with John Carroll and Ruth Hussey, The Fighting Kentuckian, also with Wayne, A Perilous Journey with David Brian and Scott Brady, and Fair Wind to Java with Fred MacMurray. She retired from films in 1958. Reportedly only 2 of her 20 films made money. In 1952, Ralston married Republic studio headHerbert Yates. Yates was nearly 40 years her senior, and reportedly left his wife and children to be with Ralston. Yates used his position to obtain roles for Ralston, and at one point was sued by studio shareholders for using company assets to promote his wife. Yates died in 1966, leaving his $8 million estate to Ralston. She suffered a nervous breakdown shortly thereafter, then remarried and lived quietly in southern California. She died on February 9, 2003, in Santa Barbara, California, after a long battle with cancer. For her work in films, Ralston has a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
