Valerie Kaplanova was born on September 12, 1917, in Hlinsko. Until she was eleven, she lived in Vienna, thanks to her father, a shoe sales representative. At her father's request, she graduated from family school and became a secretary. While working, she played with an amateur ensemble Zive Jeviste. She first appeared on stage in 1930 in the production "Ukazy Nasich Dejin" at Vinohrady Theatre.
She became a professional actress after the Second World War. She performed in regional theatres until her death.
Kaplanova was an extraordinary actress. She amazed especially with her physiognomy - a thin and bony figure, an early wrinkled face with an absent and bewitching look and a creaking high voice. Most often on the stage and later in film, she played character roles of mothers and old grandmothers.
She first appeared in front of the cameras in 1951 in a short educational and documentary films Pionyr and Radeji drive. She appeared in front of the film cameras in a bigger role sixteen years later in Kachyna's drama Night of the bride / Noc nevesty (1967), where she played chairman's wife Filipa.
Her home stage was in Pardubice. In film, she often played various smaller characters such as Hadacova (Ohlednuti), Skuhrovcova (Svedectvi mrtvych oci), Erna (... A pozdravuj vlastovky), "goddess" (Skareda dedina), grandmotner (The Cat Prince/Kocici princ), grandmother (Tchan), old lady (Dissolved and Effused/Rozpusteny a vypusteny), , incantation (Oldrich a Bozena), Grim reaper (The Feather Fairy / Perinbaba), grandmother (Nexus, Artus, Merlin a Prchlici, Malostranske humoresky) and lady in a bookstore (Bringing Up Girls in Bohemia/Vychova divek v Cechach).
Among her biggest and most popular characters is undoubtedly the evil godmother in Zeman's fairy tale Almost King / Honza malem kralem (1976), a museum guide who eventually turns out to be Jara Cimrman himself in Sverak and Smoljak's fictional biographical film Jara Cimrman Lying, Sleeping / Jara Cimrman lezici, spici (1983), and especially senile grandmother, lying in bed in the backyard all day long (this character was taken over by Kaplanova after the late Erna Cervena) in the second and third part of the crazy summer trilogy Su n, Hay ... (Sun, Hay and a Slap / Slunce, seno a par facek, 1989 and Sun, Hay, Erotics / Slunce, seno, erotika, 1991) directed by Zdenek Troska.
Thanks to her incredible appearance, she was chosen by foreign productions shooting in czechoslovakia and later in the czech republic (Howling 2, The raggedy Rawney, process, Giorgino, La casa rosa, etc.). In the czech film, she last played the role of grandmother filomena in zdenek havlicek's fairy-tale comedy Smankote, babicko, caruj! (1998).
Thanks to the TV commercial TUTOVKA (1992), she earned the popular nickname "Baba Tutovka" among viewers. She won Senior Prix Award (1994) and the Medal of the City of Pardubice (1995). One of the most interesting Czech actresses, Valerie Kaplanova, died on May 12, 1999, in Pardubice at the age of eighty-one.