Helen Vinson
Encyclopedia
Helen Vinson was an American film actress, who appeared in 40 films between 1932 and 1945.
. She was a tall and distinguished-looking woman with brown eyes and naturally curly hair. Miss Vinson's father was an oil man. Her personal life included a passion for horses she developed during her youth. She studied at the University of Texas at Austin
.
Little Theater. Culmore took Helen as a pupil and soon the young woman was playing leads with The Little Theater Group. From Texas, she moved quickly to Broadway
. Her first success in New York City
was in a play called Los Angeles. A succession of performances followed and led to a contract with Warner Brothers. Later, she regretted her quick leap to Hollywood and motion pictures. She lamented, "If I'd stayed in New York longer, I'd be getting a much bigger salary out here now."
Vinson's screen career often featured her in roles in which she played the part of the other woman or (pre-Code) loose women with active romantic lives. Her first film role was Jewel Robbery
(1932), which starred William Powell
and Kay Francis
. She appeared as Doris Dulafield in The Kennel Murder Case
, which starred Powell as Philo Vance
. One of her memorable roles was in The Wedding Night
(1935). She played the wife of Gary Cooper
and the rival of Anna Sten
, in a story about the Connecticut
tobacco fields. Another performance was in the RKO film In Name Only
(1939), in which she was cast as the treacherous friend of Carole Lombard
, Kay Francis
and Cary Grant
. Another stand-out role for Vinson was as an undercover federal agent posing as a femme fatale
opposite Richard Cromwell
in Universal Pictures
's anti-Nazi action drama entitled, Enemy Agent (1940). She followed that role with the role of Helen Draque in The Thin Man Goes Home
. Vinson's film career petered out in 1945.
For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Vinson had a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
at 1560 Vine Street
.
in New Orleans. She was married to noted tennis player Fred Perry
. She loved horses and had a private and personal mount named Arrabella.
Helen Vinson died in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
in 1999, aged 92.
Early life
Vinson was born Helen Rulfs in Beaumont, TexasBeaumont, Texas
Beaumont is a city in and county seat of Jefferson County, Texas, United States, within the Beaumont–Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city's population was 118,296 at the 2010 census. With Port Arthur and Orange, it forms the Golden Triangle, a major industrial area on the...
. She was a tall and distinguished-looking woman with brown eyes and naturally curly hair. Miss Vinson's father was an oil man. Her personal life included a passion for horses she developed during her youth. She studied at the University of Texas at Austin
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
.
Theater
In Austin, she met Mrs. March Culmore, director of the Houston, TexasHouston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
Little Theater. Culmore took Helen as a pupil and soon the young woman was playing leads with The Little Theater Group. From Texas, she moved quickly to Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
. Her first success in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
was in a play called Los Angeles. A succession of performances followed and led to a contract with Warner Brothers. Later, she regretted her quick leap to Hollywood and motion pictures. She lamented, "If I'd stayed in New York longer, I'd be getting a much bigger salary out here now."
Film career
Jewel Robbery
Jewel Robbery is a 1932 comedy film directed by William Dieterle and starring William Powell and Kay Francis. It was based on the play Ekszerrablás a Váci-uccában by Ladislas Fodor and the English adaptation, Jewel Robbery, by Bertram Bloch.-Plot:...
(1932), which starred William Powell
William Powell
William Horatio Powell was an American actor.A major star at MGM, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the popular Thin Man series in which Powell and Loy played Nick and Nora Charles...
and Kay Francis
Kay Francis
Kay Francis was an American stage and film actress. After a brief period on Broadway in the late 1920s, she moved to film and achieved her greatest success between 1930 and 1936, when she was the number one female star at the Warner Brothers studio, and the highest paid American film actress...
. She appeared as Doris Dulafield in The Kennel Murder Case
The Kennel Murder Case (film)
The Kennel Murder Case is a 1933 American film directed by Michael Curtiz starring William Powell as Philo Vance, reprising the role for Warner Brothers after appearing as Vance in three films for Paramount.-Plot:...
, which starred Powell as Philo Vance
Philo Vance
Philo Vance featured in 12 crime novels written by S. S. Van Dine , published in the 1920s and 1930s. During that time, Vance was immensely popular in books, movies, and on the radio. He was portrayed as a stylish, even foppish dandy, a New York bon vivant possessing a highly intellectual bent...
. One of her memorable roles was in The Wedding Night
The Wedding Night
The Wedding Night is a 1935 American romantic drama film directed by King Vidor, and starring Gary Cooper, Anna Sten, and Ralph Bellamy. Vidor won the Best Director Award at the Venice Film Festival.-Plot:...
(1935). She played the wife of Gary Cooper
Gary Cooper
Frank James Cooper, known professionally as Gary Cooper, was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made...
and the rival of Anna Sten
Anna Sten
Anna Sten was a Ukrainian-born Russian silent film actress and later a Hollywood film star. She began her career in stage plays and films in Russia before travelling to Germany, where she starred in several films...
, in a story about the Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
tobacco fields. Another performance was in the RKO film In Name Only
In Name Only
In Name Only is a 1939 romantic film starring Cary Grant, Carole Lombard and Kay Francis. It was based on the 1935 novel Memory of Love by Bessie Breuer.-Plot:...
(1939), in which she was cast as the treacherous friend of Carole Lombard
Carole Lombard
Carole Lombard was an American actress. She was particularly noted for her comedic roles in the screwball comedies of the 1930s...
, Kay Francis
Kay Francis
Kay Francis was an American stage and film actress. After a brief period on Broadway in the late 1920s, she moved to film and achieved her greatest success between 1930 and 1936, when she was the number one female star at the Warner Brothers studio, and the highest paid American film actress...
and Cary Grant
Cary Grant
Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...
. Another stand-out role for Vinson was as an undercover federal agent posing as a femme fatale
Femme fatale
A femme fatale is a mysterious and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers in bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations. She is an archetype of literature and art...
opposite Richard Cromwell
Richard Cromwell (actor)
Richard Cromwell, born LeRoy Melvin Radabaugh , was an American actor. His family and friends called him Roy, though he was also professionally known and signed autographs as Dick Cromwell. Cromwell's career was at its pinnacle with his work in Jezebel with Bette Davis and Henry Fonda and again...
in Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
's anti-Nazi action drama entitled, Enemy Agent (1940). She followed that role with the role of Helen Draque in The Thin Man Goes Home
The Thin Man Goes Home
The Thin Man Goes Home is a 1945 motion picture directed by Richard Thorpe. It is the fifth of the six Thin Man films starring William Powell and Myrna Loy as Dashiell Hammett's dapper private detective Nick Charles and his wife Nora.-Plot:...
. Vinson's film career petered out in 1945.
For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Vinson had a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
at 1560 Vine Street
Vine Street
Vine is a street in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California that runs north-south from Melrose Avenue up past Hollywood Boulevard. The intersection of Hollywood and Vine was once a symbol of Hollywood itself...
.
Private life and death
Away from film-making and following her retirement, Vinson's activities made frequent trips to New York City to see Broadway shows, visited friends in her home state of Texas, and enjoyed the Mardi GrasMardi Gras
The terms "Mardi Gras" , "Mardi Gras season", and "Carnival season", in English, refer to events of the Carnival celebrations, beginning on or after Epiphany and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday...
in New Orleans. She was married to noted tennis player Fred Perry
Fred Perry
Frederick John Perry was a championship-winning English tennis and table tennis player who won 10 Majors including eight Grand Slams and two Pro Slams. Perry won three consecutive Wimbledon Championships between 1934 and 1936 and was World No. 1 four years in a row...
. She loved horses and had a private and personal mount named Arrabella.
Helen Vinson died in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Chapel Hill is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, United States and the home of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UNC Health Care...
in 1999, aged 92.
Selected filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1932 | Jewel Robbery Jewel Robbery Jewel Robbery is a 1932 comedy film directed by William Dieterle and starring William Powell and Kay Francis. It was based on the play Ekszerrablás a Váci-uccában by Ladislas Fodor and the English adaptation, Jewel Robbery, by Bertram Bloch.-Plot:... |
Marianne | |
| 1932 | Two Against the World Two Against the World (1932 film) Two Against the World is a 1932 drama film starring Constance Bennett as a woman who tries her best to keep her sister and brother out of trouble... |
Corinne Walton | |
| 1932 | The Crash The Crash (film) The Crash is a 1932 drama film directed by William Dieterle. The film is based on the 1932 novel Children of Pleasure written by Larry Barretto, and stars Ruth Chatterton as a luxury loving wife devastated by the crash of 1929.-Plot:... |
Esther Parrish | uncredited |
| 1932 | I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang is a Pre-Code crime/drama film starring Paul Muni as a wrongfully convicted convict on a chain gang who escapes to Chicago. The film was written by Howard J. Green and Brown Holmes from Robert Elliott Burns's autobiography, I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain... |
Helen | |
| 1933 | Lawyer Man Lawyer Man Lawyer Man is a 1933 Warner Bros. drama film directed by William Dieterle. The story is based on the novel by Max Trell and the film stars William Powell and Joan Blondell.... |
Barbara 'Babs' Bentley | |
| 1933 | Midnight Club | Iris Whitney | |
| 1933 | The Kennel Murder Case The Kennel Murder Case (film) The Kennel Murder Case is a 1933 American film directed by Michael Curtiz starring William Powell as Philo Vance, reprising the role for Warner Brothers after appearing as Vance in three films for Paramount.-Plot:... |
Doris Delafield | |
| 1933 | The Power and the Glory (film) The Power and the Glory The Power and the Glory is a novel by British author Graham Greene. The title is an allusion to the doxology often added to the end of the Lord's Prayer: "For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, now and forever , amen." This novel has also been published in the US under the name The... |
Eve Borden | |
| 1934 | Gift of Gab (film) Gift of Gab (film) Gift of Gab is a 1934 black-and-white film released by Universal Pictures. Edmund Lowe stars as a man with the "Gift of Gab" — he can sell anyone anything. The film costars Ruth Etting, Ethel Waters, Victor Moore, and Gloria Stuart, and features Boris Karloff and Béla Lugosi.Ruth Etting sings... |
Nurse | |
| 1934 | The Captain Hates the Sea The Captain Hates the Sea The Captain Hates the Sea is a 1934 comedy film directed by Lewis Milestone and released by Columbia Pictures. The film, which involves a Grand Hotel-style series of intertwining stories involving the passengers on a cruise ship, is notable as the last film starring one-time silent film icon John... |
Janet Grayson | |
| 1934 | Broadway Bill Broadway Bill Broadway Bill is an American horse-racing - comedy film from 1934, directed by Frank Capra and starring Warner Baxter and Myrna Loy. In the UK the film was released as Strictly Confidential... |
Margaret | |
| 1935 | The Wedding Night The Wedding Night The Wedding Night is a 1935 American romantic drama film directed by King Vidor, and starring Gary Cooper, Anna Sten, and Ralph Bellamy. Vidor won the Best Director Award at the Venice Film Festival.-Plot:... |
Dora Barrett | |
| 1935 | Private Worlds Private Worlds Private Worlds is a drama film which tells the story of the staff and patients at a mental hospital, and the chief of the hospital who has problems dealing with a female psychiatrist. It stars Claudette Colbert, Charles Boyer, Joel McCrea, Joan Bennett, and Helen Vinson.The movie was written by... |
Claire Monet | |
| 1935 | The Tunnel The Tunnel (1935 film) The Tunnel, also known as Transatlantic Tunnel in the United States, is a 1935 British science fiction film based on the 1913 novel Der Tunnel by Bernhard Kellermann, about the building of a transatlantic tunnel. It was directed by Maurice Elvey and stars Richard Dix, Leslie Banks, Madge Evans,... |
Varlia Lloyd | Released as Transatlantic Tunnel in the United States |
| 1935 | King of the Damned King of the Damned King of the Damned is a 1935 British action film directed by Walter Forde and starring Conrad Veidt, Helen Vinson, Noah Beery and Cecil Ramage. Convict 83 is a prisoner on an island, where the harsh regime of the Governor pushes him to lead a revolt... |
Anna Courvin | |
| 1936 | Love in Exile Love in Exile Love in Exile is a 1936 British romantic adventure film directed by Alfred L. Werker and starring Helen Vinson, Clive Brook and Mary Carlisle.-Cast:* Helen Vinson - Countess Xandra St... |
Countess Xandra St. Aurion | |
| 1937 | Vogues of 1938 Vogues of 1938 Vogues of 1938 is a 1937 musical film distributed by United Artists, directed by Irving Cummings, written by Bella Spewack and Sam Spewack, and starring by Warner Baxter and Joan Bennett... |
Mary Curson | |
| 1939 | In Name Only In Name Only In Name Only is a 1939 romantic film starring Cary Grant, Carole Lombard and Kay Francis. It was based on the 1935 novel Memory of Love by Bessie Breuer.-Plot:... |
Mrs. Suzanne Ducross | |
| 1940 | Beyond Tomorrow | Arlene Terry | Colorized version released in 2004 as Beyond Christmas |
| 1940 | Torrid Zone Torrid Zone Torrid Zone is a 1940 adventure film starring James Cagney, Ann Sheridan and Pat O'Brien.-Plot summary:Steve Case has to deal with trouble at his tropical fruit company's Central American banana plantation... |
Mrs. Gloria Anderson | |
| 1941 | Nothing But the Truth Nothing But the Truth (1941 film) Nothing But the Truth is a comedy film starring Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard, their third movie together in three years. The movie was directed by Elliott Nugent.... |
Linda Grahm | |
| 1944 | Chip Off the Old Block Chip Off the Old Block Chip Off the Old Block is 1944 American film starring Donald O'Connor, Peggy Ryan, and Ann Blyth. In the story, the son of a strict man from the Navy falls in love with a girl from a performing family . In the end, the families learn to except their differences and they are allowed to be in love... |
Glory Marlow Jr. | |
| 1944 | The Lady and the Monster The Lady and the Monster The Lady and the Monster is a film based on the horror novel Donovan's Brain by Curt Siodmak.-Plot:The film is about the attempts to keep alive the brain of a multimillionaire after his death, only to create a telepathic monster... |
Chloe Donovan | |
| 1945 | The Thin Man Goes Home The Thin Man Goes Home The Thin Man Goes Home is a 1945 motion picture directed by Richard Thorpe. It is the fifth of the six Thin Man films starring William Powell and Myrna Loy as Dashiell Hammett's dapper private detective Nick Charles and his wife Nora.-Plot:... |
Helena Draque |
External links
- Helen Vinson and Fred Perry New York Public Library Digital Gallery image (1935)