Helen Broderick

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Helen Broderick (born August 11, 1891 in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , † September 25, 1959 in Beverly Hills , Los Angeles , California ) was an American theater and film actress with Irish- German roots.

Life

Helen Broderick was the daughter of the opera singer William E. Broderick and the opera singer Emma Krause (1865-1948), also known under the stage name Mariani. Broderick's aunts Bertha and Ida Krause also worked as opera singers. Helen Broderick attended public schools in her hometown of Philadelphia and in Boston . Despite objections from her parents, she began performing as a revue dancer at the age of 14. With the Ziegfeld Follies she made her debut on Broadway in 1907 , where her comedic talent, in addition to singing and dance, soon predestined her for humorous roles in musicals. After appearances in musical comedies such as The Yankee Girl and Jumping Jupiter , she appeared with her husband, comedian Lester Crawford (1882–1962), for several years in vaudeville theaters. In 1923 Broderick returned to Broadway, where she was again preferably cast in musicals, such as the Irving Berlin hits The Band Wagon and As Thousands Cheer .

In the early 1930s she took on her first film roles - initially in short films that were made in New York City , where she lived at the time , and then in Hollywood . In 1931 she starred alongside her husband in 50 Million Frenchmen , a screen adaptation of the Cole Porter musical of the same name, directed by Lloyd Bacon , in the role of an American tourist whom she had already played on Broadway. The New York Times attested the film, in which the Porter songs were not used, few amusing moments, but Broderick made "the best of her role". From the mid-1930s under contract with RKO Pictures , comic supporting roles followed alongside Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the film musicals I dance in your heart (1935) and Swing Time (1936), in which Broderick is both sarcastic Friend of Rogers. In the crime comedy Murder on a Bridle Path she played alongside James Gleason the female lead role of the young detective Hildegarde Withers. In the comedy film The Bride Walks Out , she stood next to Barbara Stanwyck in front of the camera. In 1938 she moved to Universal Pictures , where she initially directed the comedy Whirlwind from Paris (1938) with Danielle Darrieux and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. , directed by Henry Koster . At MGM she was used in 1939 alongside Robert Taylor in the western Auf die Kampf by director W. S. Van Dyke . Her last screen appearance was in the Deanna Durbin film I Sing Me Into Your Heart (1946).

Helen Broderick's grave is in Ferndale Cemetery in Johnstown , New York. Her son was the actor Broderick Crawford .

Filmography (selection)

  • 1931: 50 million Frenchmen
  • 1935: I dance myself into your heart ( Top Hat )
  • 1935: To Beat the Band
  • 1936: Love on a Bet
  • 1936: Murder on a Bridle Path
  • 1936: The Bride Walks Out
  • 1936: Swing Time
  • 1936: Smartest Girl in Town
  • 1937: We're on the jury
  • 1937: She's Got Everything
  • 1938: Whirlwind from Paris ( The Rage of Paris )
  • 1938: The Road to Reno
  • 1939: Into the Breach ( Stand Up and Fight )
  • 1939: Naughty But Nice
  • 1939: Honeymoon in Bali
  • 1940: The Captain Is a Lady
  • 1940: No, No, Nanette
  • 1941: Father Takes a Wife
  • 1943: Stage Door Canteen
  • 1944: Three Is a Family
  • 1945: Love, Honor and Goodbye
  • 1946: I sing myself into your heart ( Because of Him )

literature

  • Helen Broderick . In: Alfred E. Twomey, Arthur F. McClure: The Versatiles: A Study of Supporting Character Actors and Actresses in the American Motion Picture, 1930–1955 . A. S. Barnes, 1969, ISBN 0-498-06792-0 , p. 52.

Web links

Commons : Helen Broderick  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Eugenical News . Vol. 15-16, American Eugenics Society, 1930, p. 175.
  2. ↑ Emma Krause in the Find a Grave database
  3. ↑ Ruth Benjamin, Arthur Rosenblatt: Who Sang What on Broadway, 1866–1996: The Singers (A – K) . McFarland & Company, 2006, p. 91.
  4. ↑ Mordaunt Hall : Fifty Million Frenchmen (1931) . In: The New York Times , March 26, 1931. "Miss Broderick makes the most of her role."
personal data
SURNAME Broderick, Helen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American theater and film actress with Irish-German roots
DATE OF BIRTH August 11, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , United States
DATE OF DEATH September 25, 1959
Place of death Beverly Hills , Los Angeles , United States