Norma Drury

Biography

Norma Drury, a talented young pianist, met and fell in love with theatrical director Richard Boleslavsky (Boleslawski) when both were working on the New York stage play "Mr Moneypenny" in 1928-29. Boleslavsky divorced his Russian wife of 12 years, Natalia (Shimkevich) Boleslavsky, and married the younger pianist in 1929, after which the newlyweds moved to Los Angeles where Boleslavsky began his career as a film director. Norma (Drury) Boleslavsky played piano on- or off-camera, and/or acted dramatic roles, in appx. 13 films between 1932 and 1945 (e.g., "Stage Door" in '37), mostly after her husband's early, sudden death in January, 1937. Sometimes she was billed as Norma Boleslavsky, more often as Norma Drury. She also made guest appearances on popular radio programs of the 1930s and 1940s (Bergen-McCarthy, etc.). Norma and Richard Boleslavsky had one child, a son Jan (Janek), who was born in 1935 and died very young in 1962.