Helen Walker | |
|---|---|
 Walker c. 1940s | |
| Born | July 17, 1920 Worcester, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | March 10, 1968 (aged 47) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1942–1960 |
| Spouses | |
Helen Marion Walker (July 17, 1920 – March 10, 1968) was an American actress. [1]
Helen Marion Walker was born July 17, 1920, in Worcester, Massachusetts, the daughter of Irish-American parents. [2] According to Walker, she grew up "quite poor." [2] Her father, who managed a grocery store, died when she was six years old, and she and her two sisters went to live on a farm in Upton, Massachusetts. [2] Her mother took a job working in a department store but later suffered a nervous breakdown. [3]
Walker's initial acting experience came in high school, performing in school plays. [2] She won a scholarship to the Erskine School of Dramatics in Boston [2] and completed one semester of studies, but she withdrew after completing her first play, embarrassed by her performance. [2]
After dropping out of the Erskine School of Dramatics, Walker began to appear in local stock theater. [4] On Broadway, she portrayed Lisa Otis in Jason (1942). [5] She married Paramount lawyer Robert Blumofe on November 19, 1942, in Tijuana, Mexico, [6] but the marriage ended in divorce in 1946.
Walker made her film debut in 1942's Lucky Jordan , a comedy starring Alan Ladd. She earned a solid reputation playing leading roles in comedies as what she termed a "reactress," a straight man to comic leads in films such as Brewster's Millions and Murder, He Says , both released in 1945. [7]
According to Yvonne de Carlo, Walker, "the good natured but tough talking starlet," took Gail Russell "under her wing and introduced her to the tranquilizing benefits of vodka" when they were both under contract to Paramount. [8] Russell subsequently became an alcoholic.
Walker had just finished filming Her Adventurous Night (1946) and was set to begin Heaven Only Knows [1] when an auto accident drastically disrupted her career. On December 31, 1946, [2] while driving a convertible coupe [9] belonging to director Bruce "Lucky" Humberstone from Palm Springs to Hollywood on U.S. Route 99, [9] she picked up three hitchhikers: first, a soldier named Robert E. Lee, and later 18-year-old students Philip Mercado and Joseph Montalde. [10] Near Redlands, California, the car slid off the road into a dirt division strip and rolled for more than 300 feet, flipping over as many as seven times and ejecting all four passengers. Lee was killed as his head struck the pavement, [9] and Walker and the other two passengers were seriously injured. [11] Walker suffered fractures to her pelvis and clavicle as well as a crushed foot, [9] and spent more than a month in the hospital. [12] Mercado, who had been thrown nearly 80 feet (24 m) from the car, [9] sued Walker for $150,000, [13] claiming that Walker was driving "like a fool," ignored his requests to slow down and diverted her attention from the road to ask for a cigarette just before the accident. [14] Montalde sued Walker for $100,000. [15] The police estimated that Walker had been traveling in excess of 80 mph (130 km/h) and a responding officer stated that he had smelled alcohol on her breath. [14] A coroner's jury found that Walker had been driving negligently. [12] She was charged with manslaughter for Lee's death, [15] but the charge was later dismissed for lack of “evidence”. [16] Walker was replaced in Heaven Only Knows by Marjorie Reynolds.
Despite the accident and her legal troubles, Walker continued to act, and she appeared in perhaps her most famous role as the duplicitous psychoanalyst in the original version of Nightmare Alley (1947) with Tyrone Power. She also took prominent roles in films such as Call Northside 777 (1948) with James Stewart, My Dear Secretary (1948) with Kirk Douglas and Impact (1949) with Brian Donlevy.
In 1950, Walker married department-store executive Edward DuDomaine, [17] but the couple divorced in 1952. [1] [18]
Following starring roles in My True Story (1951) and Problem Girls (1953), Walker made her final film appearance in Joseph H. Lewis's film noir The Big Combo with Cornel Wilde in 1955. She retired from acting at the age of 35.
In 1960, after Walker's house was destroyed by fire, several other Hollywood actresses held a benefit to assist her. [1]
Walker died of cancer following a nine-year illness [12] on March 10, 1968, in the North Hollywood section of Los Angeles, California at the age of 47. [4] [19]
A Democrat, Walker supported Adlai Stevenson's campaign during the 1952 presidential election. [20]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1942 | Lucky Jordan | Jill Evans | |
| 1943 | The Good Fellows | Ethel Hilton | |
| 1944 | Abroad with Two Yanks | Joyce Stuart | |
| 1945 | The Man in Half Moon Street | Eve Brandon | |
| 1945 | Brewster's Millions | Peggy Gray | |
| 1945 | Murder, He Says | Claire Matthews | |
| 1945 | Duffy's Tavern | Helen Walker | |
| 1946 | People Are Funny | Corey Sullivan | |
| 1946 | Murder in the Music Hall | Millicent | |
| 1946 | Cluny Brown | Elizabeth 'Betty' Cream | |
| 1946 | Her Adventurous Night | Constance Fry | |
| 1947 | The Homestretch | Kitty Brant | |
| 1947 | Nightmare Alley | Lilith Ritter | |
| 1948 | Call Northside 777 | Laura McNeal | |
| 1949 | My Dear Secretary | Elsie | |
| 1949 | Impact | Irene Williams | |
| 1951 | My True Story | Ann Martin | |
| 1953 | Problem Girls | Miss Dixon | |
| 1955 | The Big Combo | Alicia Brown | |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1956 | Dragnet | 1 episode | |
| 1957 | The 20th Century-Fox Hour | Shirley Larkin | 1 episode |
| 1960 | Wichita Town | Sue, Scotty's girlfriend | 1 episode |
| 1960 | Lock-Up | Janice Horton / Margaret Benedict | 2 episodes (final appearance) |
Fifi D'Orsay was a Canadian-American actress and singer.
Shelley Winters was an American film actress whose career spanned seven decades. She won Academy Awards for The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) and A Patch of Blue (1965), and received nominations for A Place in the Sun (1951) and The Poseidon Adventure (1972). She also appeared in A Double Life (1947), The Night of the Hunter (1955), Lolita (1962), Alfie (1966), Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976), and Pete's Dragon (1977). She also acted on television, including a tenure on the sitcom Roseanne, and wrote three autobiographies.
Gail Russell was an American film and television actress.
Margaret Yvonne Middleton, known professionally as Yvonne De Carlo, was a Canadian-American actress, dancer and singer. She became a Hollywood film star in the 1940s and 1950s, made several recordings, and later acted on television and stage.
Virginia Bruce was an American actress and singer.
Lindsay Jean Wagner is an American actress. Wagner is best known for her leading role in the American science fiction television series The Bionic Woman (1976–1978), in which she portrayed character Jaime Sommers. She first played the role on the series The Six Million Dollar Man. The character became a pop culture icon of the 1970s. For this role, Wagner won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Dramatic Role in 1977 – the first for an actor or actress in a science fiction series. Wagner began acting professionally in 1971 and has maintained a lengthy acting career in a variety of film and television productions to the present day.
Susan Cabot was an American film, stage, and television actress. She rose to prominence for her roles in a variety of Western films, including Tomahawk (1951), The Duel at Silver Creek (1952), and Gunsmoke (1953).
Ella Wallace Raines was an American film and television actress active from the early 1940s through the mid-1950s. Described as "sultry" and "mysterious", the green-eyed star appeared frequently in crime pictures and film noir, but also in drama, comedy, Westerns, thrillers, and romance.
Ann Marie Blyth is an American retired actress and singer. She began her acting career on Broadway in Watch on the Rhine (1941–42), and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Veda in the 1945 Michael Curtiz film Mildred Pierce. Her other notable film roles include Brute Force (1947), Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid (1948), Once More, My Darling (1949), The World in His Arms (1952), All the Brothers Were Valiant (1953), Rose Marie (1954), The Student Prince (1954), Kismet (1955), and The Helen Morgan Story (1957).
Anne Jeffreys was an American actress and singer. She was the female lead in the 1950s TV series Topper.
Lizabeth Virginia Scott was an American actress, singer and model for the Walter Thornton Model Agency, known for her "smoky voice" and being "the most beautiful face of film noir during the 1940s and 1950s". After understudying the role of Sabina in the original Broadway and Boston stage productions of The Skin of Our Teeth, she emerged in such films as The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946), Dead Reckoning (1947), Desert Fury (1947), and Too Late for Tears (1949). Of her 22 films, she was the leading lady in all but three. In addition to stage and radio, she appeared on television from the late 1940s to early 1970s.
Beatrice Joan Caulfield was an American actress and model. After being discovered by Broadway producers, she began a stage career in 1943 that eventually led to signing as an actress with Paramount Pictures.
Dorothy Sebastian was an American film and stage actress.
Helen Mack was an American actress. She started her career as a child actress in silent films, moving to Broadway plays and touring one of the vaudeville circuits. Her greater success as an actress was as a leading lady in the 1930s. She made the transition to performing on radio and then into writing, directing, and producing shows during the Golden Age of Radio. She later wrote for Broadway, stage and television. Her career spanned the infancy of the motion picture industry, the beginnings of Broadway, the final days of vaudeville, the transition to sound movies, the Golden Age of Radio, and the rise of television.
Patricia Dane was an American film actress of the 1940s.
Frances Howard Goldwyn was an American actress. She was the second wife of producer Samuel Goldwyn, and the paternal grandmother of actors Tony and John Goldwyn.
Queenie Leonard was a British actress. She was the last surviving cast member of And Then There Were None (1945) until her death in 2002.
Roberta Haynes was an American actress who was active from 1947 until 1989.
Helen Amelia Gilbert was an American film actress and musician.
Leone Sousa was an American model and actress.
