Career
Born Ina Rosenberg to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, Ina Balin first appeared on television on The Perry Como Show. That same year, she landed her first film role in The Black Orchid. She appeared in The Young Doctors.
In 1961, she appeared as Pilar Graile in The Comancheros with John Wayne and Stuart Whitman.
Company-starring with Jerry Lewis in the 1964 hit comedy The Patsy, Balin also had a secondary, but important part in 1965"s The Greatest Story Ever Told. She also co-starred with Elvis Presley in his 1969 film.
She guest-starred on dozens of television shows, including Adventures in Paradise, Bonanza, The Lieutenant, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Battlestar Galactica, Get Smart, lieutenant Takes a Thief, Ironside, Twelve O"Clock High, Quincy, Mechanical Engineering and Magnum, Philippine Islands She appeared with Joseph Cotten, Fernando Lamas and Dean Jagger in the 1969 made-for-television movie The Lonely Profession. In 1966, Balin toured Vietnam with the United Service Organizations on the first of many trips to the war-torn region.
She co-starred in the 1971 film The Projectionist, which marked the screen debut of Rodney Dangerfield.
In 1975, she aided in the evacuation of orphans during the fall of Saigon. Eventually, she adopted three of these orphaned children. In 1980, she played herself in a made-for-television movie based on her experiences, The Children of An Lac.
While working on The Children of An Lac, she became acquainted with Christy Marx who, at the time, worked as a producer"s liaison for various television programs.
According to Marx, she used Balin"s story as a basis for a character in the animated show Jem when she became a writer The character of Ba Nee is based on Balin"s adopted daughter, Ba-Nhi.
She co-starred in the 1982 comedy The Comeback Trail with the lead actor and director from The Projectionist. Balin died on June 20, 1990, in New Haven, Connecticut, aged 52, from pulmonary hypertension brought on by coronary heart disease.
