Helen Chandler

Helen Chandler (1925)

Helen Chandler (born February 1, 1906 in Charleston , † April 30, 1965 in Los Angeles ) was an American actress . She achieved lasting fame through the portrayal of Mina Seward in Tod Browning's horror film Dracula from 1931.

life and career

Chandler's acting career began in 1917, when he was a child, on Broadway with the play Barbara . A few years later she was already starring in Shakespeare plays such as Richard III. (1920) and Ophelia in a modern version of Hamlet (1925). When she was offered the first film roles in 1927, she was already one of the most famous new actresses on Broadway.

Her first film, The Music Master , from 1927 was not a success. The great success with audiences and critics came in 1930 when she joined Douglas Fairbanks jr. in the adaptation of the play Outward Bound played the role of a suicide who finds herself on a ship that travels to eternity. Chandler, who originally wanted to play the role of Alice in Alice in Wonderland , was rejected and instead played Mina Seward in the classic film Dracula , one of the most successful films of the year. In the same year she married the English playwright Cyril Hume . Critics and film historians consider that it was around this time that Chandler's drinking problem began, which she struggled with for the rest of her life. Other larger roles followed, such as with Walter Huston in A House Divided (1931), with Richard Barthelmess in The Last Flight (1931) and with Colin Clive in Christopher Strong (1933).

In 1934 she divorced Cyril Hume and then commuted between engagements in Hollywood and Broadway, where she played the role of Helen Bennet in Pride and Prejudice and the leading role in Boy Meets Girl in 1935 . When Outward Bound was performed again in 1938, she took over the role she had already played in the film. That same year, Chandler also directed Mr. Boggs Steps Out , the last of her 27 feature films. After her divorce from Hume, she married the English actor Bramwell Fletcher . When Chandler's alcohol and drug problems became rampant, she was admitted to a sanatorium in 1940. Bramwell Fletcher then divorced Chandler. Her bad health made the actress give up her career.

Chandler could not get rid of her drinking problems until her death. She died at the age of 59 on April 30, 1965 of cardiac arrest during an operation for a gastric ulcer in Hollywood, California. Her remains were cremated in accordance with her wishes and interred in the chapel of the Pine Crematorium in Los Angeles.

Filmography (selection)

• 1927: The Music Master
• 1927: The Joy Girl
• 1929: Mother's Boy
• 1929: Salute
• 1929: The Sky Hawk
• 1930: Outward Bound
• 1931: A House Divided
• 1931: The Last Flight
• 1931: Dracula
• 1933: Christopher Strong
• 1934: Long Lost Father
• 1934: Midnight Alibi
• 1934: The Unfinished Symphony
• 1935: It's a Bet
• 1938: Mr. Boggs Steps Out

Web links

• Helen Chandler in the Internet Movie Database (English)