Babz Chula (born as Barbara Ellen Zuckerman; March 22, 1947 – May 7, 2010) was an American-born Canadian actress and musician.
Early life, education and career
Barbara Ellen Zuckerman was born in Springfield, Massachusetts but spent her early childhood in the working-class neighbourhood of Jamaica, Queens County, New York City. Her widowed mother, Abby Zuckerman, a booking agent for Leonard Bernstein, moved her with two young children, first to Hawaii and then to California, to pursue work in the entertainment field after Chula's father, Larry Zuckerman, an auto mechanic and stock-car racer, was killed in a car race.[3]
Growing up in Los Angeles, where her mother eventually remarried, young Barbara won a scholarship to the California Institute of the Arts and returned to New York after graduation to perform as a folk singer. In 1971, she and her first husband, Phillip Ciulla, relocated to Slocan Valley in British Columbia[4] before moving to Vancouver, where she resumed her acting and singing career as Babz Chula, under the respelled phonetic pronunciation of Ciulla.[5] Her first major supporting role was in Sandy Wilson's award-winning film My American Cousin.
Personal life and death
Chula was married to Larry Lynn. After her death on May 7, 2010, at the age of 63,[4] Lynn was ordained a Catholic priest.[6]
The 2013 National Film Board of Canada documentary Chi (2013 film)[7] follows Chula to Kerala, India in 2010, where she travels in an effort to treat her 6-year battle with cancer. Directed by Anne Wheeler, the documentary follows Chula's battle with cancer until the end, detailing Chula and her family members' struggle to come to terms with her death, while celebrating her life and accomplishments.[8][9]
Gemini 1986–2011, Canadian Screen Awards 2012–present. Separate awards were presented by gender prior to 2022; a single unified category for best performance regardless of gender has been presented since.
