Zolya Talma

Zolya Valentina Talma, born Emma Valentina Cranz on February 14, 1895, in Pasadena, California, was an American actress whose career spanned silent film, Broadway, regional theater, and television from the 1910s into the 1970s. Though born in California, she occasionally claimed Barcelona as her birthplace. Her mother was a German-speaking nurse born in Mexico, and her father, William S. Cranz, was involved in silver mining before his death in 1912. Her uncle, Franklin F. Cranz, served as mayor of Nogales, Arizona, from 1904 to 1906, and the Frank F. Cranz House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. As a young student, Talma attended the Egan School of Music and Drama. By 1915 she had relocated to New York City, where she lived with an uncle, and by 1920 she was residing with Australian actress Margaret Linden and Linden's sons. The stage name she used throughout her career was suggested by playwright Augustus Thomas. She is sometimes credited as Zola Talma in various records.

Talma's screen career began with the silent film Outcast in 1917, followed by On with the Dance in 1920. Decades later she appeared in the 1955 feature film The Rose Tattoo. Her Broadway career extended from 1918 to 1951, encompassing more than twenty productions across comedies and dramas. She made her Broadway debut in Her Honor, the Mayor in 1918 and returned the following year for Mis' Nelly of N'Orleans. Throughout the 1920s she appeared in a succession of productions including The Checkerboard, Near Santa Barbara, The Morning After, The Love Song, Stronger than Love, Mama Loves Papa, Kept, Where's Your Husband?, Lally, Interference, The Great Necker, and Zeppelin. She continued working on Broadway into the 1930s and 1940s with credits including Evensong, Prisoners of War, The World We Make, Romantic Mr. Dickens, For Keeps, and the musical Sadie Thompson. Her final Broadway credit was Diamond Lil in 1951, in which she appeared alongside the production's revival cast.

Beyond Broadway, Talma maintained an active presence in regional and out-of-town theater throughout her career. Her non-Broadway stage work included Spanish Love in Washington, D.C. in 1921, Ink at Werba's Brooklyn Theater in 1927, Revelry at the Garrick Theatre in Philadelphia that same year, and Gutter Cousins at the Greenwich Theatre in 1929. She appeared in Blaze of Glory at the Court Square Theater in Massachusetts in 1934, Ladies in Retirement at the Ogunquit Playhouse in Maine in 1941, and The Late Christopher Bean at the Cape Playhouse in 1947. Regional productions later in her career included The Skin of Our Teeth at the Berkshire Playhouse in 1948, Gigi at the Town and Country Playhouse in Indianapolis in 1954, Thieves' Paradise at the Shubert in Washington, D.C. in 1956, The Matchmaker at the Alley Theater in Houston in 1957, and And When It Rains in Santa Barbara in 1961.

Talma's television career began in 1949 and continued through 1974, encompassing a wide range of programs. Her early television appearances included single episodes of The Clock, the Chevrolet Tele-Theatre, Lights Out, and The Ford Theatre Hour, all in 1949. She appeared on The Web in 1951, the Hallmark Hall of Fame and Guiding Light in 1952, and in the television movies Crown of Audubon and Proudly I Love in 1953. That same year she appeared on Omnibus in a production of Henry V, Act 5, Scene 2, and on Martin Kane, Private Eye, a series on which she appeared again in 1954. Her television work in the 1950s also included Rocky King Detective, Robert Montgomery Presents, Kraft Television Theatre, and Studio One. In the 1960s she appeared on The Asphalt Jungle, Cain's Hundred, The Eleventh Hour, Breaking Point, and two episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour in 1963 and 1965. Later credits included The Big Valley, Jericho, The Felony Squad, Adam-12, and Ironside. Her final television appearances were in the TV movies The Other Man in 1970 and Houston, We've Got a Problem in 1974.

Talma died on November 26, 1983, in Los Angeles at the age of 88.