Unė Babickaitė-Graičiūnienė (born Uršulė Babickaitė also known as Une Baye; 19 April 1897 – 1 August 1961) was a

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

n actress and theater director. During World War I, she attended the

Saint Petersburg Conservatory The N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory () (formerly known as the Petrograd Conservatory and Leningrad Conservatory) is a school of music in Saint Petersburg, Russia. In 2004, the conservatory had around 275 faculty member ...

. After the war, she staged several plays in Lithuania, but they were not well received by the critics. She then moved to the United States and appeared in several

silent film A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...

s. In 1924, she married

Vytautas Andrius Graičiūnas Vytautas Andrius Graičiūnas (August 17, 1898 in Chicago – January 9, 1952 in Olzheras, Siberia) was a Lithuanian American management theorist, management consultant, and engineer, and was a known expert in his field. Biography Born to Lithuan ...

. With his financial support, she organized theater plays in Paris and London. Babickaitė returned to Lithuania in 1936. After World War II, she was sentenced to five years in a

Gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...

Biography

During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Babickaitė and her family retreated to

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. There she met writer

Balys Sruoga Balys Sruoga (2 February 1896 – 16 October 1947) was a Lithuanian poet, playwright, critic, and literary theorist. He contributed to cultural journals from his early youth. His works were published by the liberal wing of the Lithuanian cultura ...

, who encouraged her to begin theater studies at the

in 1916. Balys named her ''Unė''. After returning to Lithuania, she organized theater group Daina and staged several performances. However, a woman director stirred up controversy in a conservative society and the plays were attacked by critics. In 1919, Babickaitė moved to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, where she simplified her name to ''Unė Baye'' and between 1922 and 1924 appeared in several

s by

Paramount Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to: Entertainment and music companies * Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. **Paramount Picture ...

. She left the film industry due to visual impairment and instead performed in the theaters in New York, Washington DC, Chicago. In 1924, she married Graičiūnas, her

cousin A cousin is a relative who is the child of a parent's sibling; this is more specifically referred to as a first cousin. A parent of a first cousin is an aunt or uncle. More generally, in the kinship system used in the English-speaking world, ...

, and moved with him to London in 1928. With her husband financing her artistic endeavors, she established the New Russian Theatre, and later the Anglo-American Company Troupe, appeared in theaters in both London and Paris. In France, she met with

Konstantin Balmont Konstantin Dmitriyevich Balmont ( rus, Константи́н Дми́триевич Ба́льмо́нт, p=, a=Konstantin Dmitriyevich Bal'mont.ru.vorb.oga; – 23 December 1942) was a Russian symbolist poet and translator who became one of ...

, who dedicated at least four of his poems to her. Following a serious illness, two car crashes and multiple surgeries, she joined the

Third Order of Saint Francis The Third Order of Saint Francis, or Franciscan Tertiaries, is the third order of the Franciscan tradition of Christianity, founded by the medieval Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi. Francis founded the Third Order, originally called t ...

in Italy but did not take vows. In 1936, she returned to Lithuania and directed plays for the

Lithuanian Riflemen's Union The Lithuanian Riflemen's Union (LRU, ), also referred to as Šauliai (''the Riflemen''; from for ''rifleman''), is a paramilitary organization supported by the Government of Lithuania and regulated by the dedicated law. It is active in three ...

. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, following the

Soviet occupation of the Baltic states The occupation of the Baltic states was a period of annexation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania by the Soviet Union from 1940 until its dissolution in 1991. For a period of several years during World War II, Nazi Germany occupied the Baltic st ...

, her husband, an American citizen, was arrested in 1951 and sentenced to ten years in

. He died the following year under unclear circumstances. Babickaitė was also sentenced to five years. In 1953, during the

de-Stalinization De-Stalinization () comprised a series of political reforms in the Soviet Union after Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, the death of long-time leader Joseph Stalin in 1953, and Khrushchev Thaw, the thaw brought about by ascension of Nik ...

campaign after

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

's death, she received amnesty and was allowed to return to Lithuania. She died in 1961 in

Kaunas Kaunas (; ) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius, the fourth largest List of cities in the Baltic states by population, city in the Baltic States and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaun ...

Legacy

Babickaitė left an extensive collection of documents, correspondence, and photos, which are preserved by the

Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania () is a national cultural institution which collects, organizes and preserves Lithuania's written cultural heritage content, develops the collection of Lithuanian and foreign documents relevant to ...

. Two volumes of documents were published in 2001 and 2005. Various theater exhibits, collected by her, are displayed by the Lithuanian Theatre, Music and Film Museum, established by

and

Vincas Krėvė-Mickevičius Vincas Mickevičius (pl. ''Wincenty Mickiewicz'', October 19, 1882 – July 17, 1954), better known by his pen name Vincas Krėvė-Mickevičius, was a Lithuanian writer, poet, novelist, playwright and philologist. He is also known as Vincas Krėv� ...

in 1926. The family home in village, where Babickaitė and her brother writer Petras Babickas were born, was turned into an ethnographic and memorial museum in 2002.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Babickaite, Une 1897 births 1961 deaths People from Kupiškis District Municipality People from Ponevezhsky Uyezd Lithuanian film actresses Lithuanian stage actresses 20th-century Lithuanian actresses Lithuanian theatre directors Lithuanian women theatre directors Lithuanian Gulag detainees Saint Petersburg Conservatory alumni