Verna Bloom

Verna Frances Bloom, born on August 7, 1938, in Lynn, Massachusetts, grew up in a Russian Jewish family{{cite web |last=Darvell |first=Michael |title=Verna Bloom |date=January 10, 2019 |publisher=Film Review Daily |url=https://www.filmreviewdaily.com/in-memoriam/verna-bloom |access-date=January 21, 2025}} 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.{{cite news |last=Sandomir |first=Richard |title=Verna Bloom, 80, Amorous Dean's Wife in 'Animal House,' Dies |date=January 11, 2019 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/11/obituaries/verna-bloom-dead.html |access-date=January 21, 2025}} She graduated from Boston University and later studied at the Herbert Berghof Studio for actors in New York.

On Broadway, Bloom portrayed Charlotte Corday 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).{{cite web |title=Verna Bloom |url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/verna-bloom-32330 |website=Internet Broadway Database |publisher=The Broadway League |access-date=February 7, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200207013910/https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/verna-bloom-32330 |archive-date=February 7, 2020}} She made her film debut in Medium Cool, and then co-starred in Clint Eastwood's 1973 film, High Plains Drifter and in the 1974 made-for-TV movie Where Have All The People Gone? with Peter Graves and Kathleen Quinlan. Bloom also had roles in more than 30 films and television episodes beginning the 1960s, including playing Mary, mother of Jesus, in The Last Temptation of Christ in 1988 and Marion Wormer in Animal House in 1978.

Bloom was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, and attended the School of Fine Arts at Boston University, graduating with a BFA in 1959.{{cite journal |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/verna-bloom-dead-animal-house-medium-cool-actress-was-80-1175314 |last=Barnes |first=Mike |title=Verna Bloom, Actress in Animal House and Medium Cool, Dies at 80 |journal=The Hollywood Reporter |date=January 10, 2019 |access-date=January 14, 2019}} She also studied at the HB Studio in New York City.{{cite web |url=https://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800031314/bio |title=Verna Bloom biography |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110522115955/http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800031314/bio |archive-date=May 22, 2011 |work=Yahoo! Movies |access-date=August 28, 2015 |publisher=AEC One Stop Group, Inc. |agency=Baseline. Yahoo! Inc.}}{{cite book |last=Cullen |first=Jim |title=Restless in the Promised Land: Catholics and the American Dream |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2001 |isbn=1-58051-093-0 |page=129 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5Ny7Z1c-4zEC&pg=PA129}}

Bloom married Richard Collier, but they separated by 1969. They began the Trident Theater in Denver Colorado, which operated from 1963 to 1965.{{cite news |last1=Adams |first1=Marjory |title=Verna Bloom: 'Medium Cool' heroine |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/85286115/verna-bloom/ |access-date=September 14, 2021 |work=The Boston Globe |date=September 23, 1969 |page=26|via = Newspapers.com}} In 1972 she married film critic Jay Cocks. They had a son, Sam, born in 1981. The couple remained married until her death.

Bloom died aged 80 on January 9, 2019, in Bar Harbor, Maine, from complications of dementia.{{cite news |url=https://variety.com/2019/film/obituaries-people-news/verna-bloom-dead-dies-animal-house-1203104909/ |title=Verna Bloom, Actress in 'Animal House,' 'High Plains Drifter,' Dies at 80 |first=Rachel |last=Yang |date=10 January 2019 |access-date=11 April 2019 |magazine=Variety |publisher=Penske Business Media, LLC.}}

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• {{IMDb name|0089244}}
• {{tcmdb name|id=17776|name=Verna Bloom}}
• {{IBDB name|32330}}

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Category:1938 births

Category:2019 deaths

Category:American film actresses

Category:Jewish American actresses

Category:Actresses from Lynn, Massachusetts

Category:Boston University College of Fine Arts alumni

Category:20th-century American actresses

Category:21st-century American actresses

Category:American stage actresses

Category:21st-century American Jews

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