Gina Collens

Gina Collens was an actress with a long and distinguished theater career who also appeared in films and on television.

Born Geraldine Elaine Silverman in Omaha, Nebraska, Collens moved to Los Angeles with her family when she was three years old. After graduating from UCLA and an additional year of study at USC, she began performnig with L.A.'s Circle Theater.

After supporting the 1948 presidential campaign of Progressive Party candidate Henry A. Wallace, she felt that she was blacklisted. She then left relocated to New York, where she adopted the name Gina Collens and studied at Hunter College, where she received an award for writing two one-act plays based on stories by V.S. Pritchett.

She continued acting and appeared on Broadway, Off Broadway and in more experimental productions at spaces such as La Mama in Lower Manhattan.

Later, after returning to Los Angeles, she continued to perform with the Circle Theater at venues such as the Mark Taper Forum, as well as in films that included Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon and on the popular television comedy Rhoda.

Collens died May 31, 2014, in Los Angeles. She was 90.