Helen Walker

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Helen Walker (born July 17, 1920 in Worcester , Massachusetts , † March 10, 1968 in North Hollywood , California ) was an American actress.

life and career

Helen Walker began her acting career in the theater and made her Broadway debut in January 1942 in the play Jason , which was to be her stepping stone to Hollywood . In her film debut Lucky Jordon (1949) she got the female lead alongside Alan Ladd , who in this film is drafted into the army as an arrogant gangster. In the following years she played mostly intelligent and beautiful women, especially often in comedies. Walker played the leading female role in Allan Dwan's Help, I'm a Millionaire (1945) alongside Dennis O'Keefe and was given a supporting supporting role as the English upper-class beauty in Ernst Lubitsch's Cluny Brown on the Free Feet (1946) with Jennifer Jones and Charles Boyer . Just as her career was on the rise, she caused a car accident in 1946 in which she was seriously injured. A 21-year-old soldier traveling with Walker died in the accident, two other soldiers also traveling survived seriously injured. The two surviving soldiers sued Walker for $ 150,000 on charges that she drove too fast and presumably drunk.

Although the lawsuit because of the car accident was later dismissed, Helen Walker's image suffered permanently from the scandal. She then played increasingly in crime films, for example alongside Tyrone Power and Joan Blondell in Der Scharlatan (1947) and as the caring wife of James Stewart in Keyword 777 (1948). In Arthur Lubin's film noir Impact , she took on the female lead in 1949, a femme fatale who betrays her husband, played by Brian Donlevy . In the 1950s she also worked for the new medium of television for the first time, but overall the role offers became rarer. She was most recently seen in the 1960 television series Lawyer for Justice alongside Macdonald Carey .

Also in 1960, Walker's house burned down and various acting friends raised money for the actress through charity campaigns. The twice divorced actress died of cancer in March 1968 at the age of 47.

Filmography

  • 1942: Gangster trap (Lucky Jordan)
  • 1943: The Good Fellows
  • 1944: Abroad with Two Yanks
  • 1945: The Man in Half Moon Street
  • 1945: Help, I'm a Millionaire (Brewster's Millions)
  • 1945: Murder, He Says
  • 1945: Duffy's Tavern
  • 1946: People Are Funny
  • 1946: Murder in the Music Hall
  • 1946: Cluny Brown on Free Feet (Cluny Brown)
  • 1946: Her Adventurous Night
  • 1947: Final spurt (The Homestretch)
  • 1947: The Charlatan (Nightmare Alley)
  • 1948: Password 777 (Call Northside 777)
  • 1948: My Dear Secretary
  • 1949: Impact
  • 1951: My True Story
  • 1953: Problem Girls
  • 1955: Secret Ring 99 (The Big Combo)
  • 1956: Police report ( Dragnet ; TV series, 1 episode)
  • 1957: The 20th Century-Fox Hour (TV series, 1 episode)
  • 1960: Lawyer for Justice ( Lock Up ; TV series, 2 episodes)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Helen Walker in the All Movie Guide (English)
  2. ^ Helen Walker - The Private Life and Times of Helen Walker. Helen Walker Pictures. Retrieved October 21, 2017 (American English).
  3. ^ Helen Walker - The Private Life and Times of Helen Walker. Helen Walker Pictures. Retrieved October 21, 2017 (American English).
personal data
SURNAME Walker, Helen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-american actress
DATE OF BIRTH 17th July 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Worcester , Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH March 10, 1968
Place of death North Hollywood , California