Helen Margarite Burgess (April 26, 1916 – April 7, 1937) was an American film and stage actress. Discovered by
Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil Blount DeMille (; August 12, 1881January 21, 1959) was an American film director, producer and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of the American cine ...
, she began her acting career in 1936 at age nineteen, playing
Louisa Cody in DeMille's Western biopic ''
The Plainsman
''The Plainsman'' is a 1936 American Western film directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur. The film presents a highly fictionalized account of the adventures and relationships between Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jan ...
''. She would appear in four films as a contract player for
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...
before dying at age twenty from
pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...
.
Life and career
Early life
Helen Margarite Burgess was born in
Portland, Oregon
Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...
in 1916, the daughter of Frank T. and Estella "Fanny" L. (
née
A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...
Hayden) Burgess.
[ Her father worked as a district agent for the ]Metropolitan Life Insurance Company
MetLife, Inc. is the holding corporation for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MLIC), better known as MetLife, and its affiliates. MetLife is among the largest global providers of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs, wi ...
of New York. She had one younger sister, Mary.[ Burgess was raised primarily in ]Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, Washington, Olympia, and northwest of Mount ...
after her father's job was transferred from Portland to Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
.[
She attended the Annie Wright School in Tacoma,] and was described as a shy child.[ In 1926, the family relocated again to ]Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
, where Burgess attended Los Angeles High School
Los Angeles High School is the oldest Public education#United States, public high school in the Southern California, Southern California Region and in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Its colors are royal blue and white and the teams are ...
and later University High School. She also attended Clark's Los Angeles Dramatic School with aspirations to become a stage actress.[
]
Film career
While starring in a play in Los Angeles, titled ''The Seventh Year'', Burgess was approached by Jack Murton, a talent scout for Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...
. While visiting the studio, she was approached by Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil Blount DeMille (; August 12, 1881January 21, 1959) was an American film director, producer and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of the American cine ...
, who at the time was looking to cast a supporting part in ''The Plainsman
''The Plainsman'' is a 1936 American Western film directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur. The film presents a highly fictionalized account of the adventures and relationships between Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jan ...
'' (1936). Burgess auditioned for the part of Louisa Cody, opposite James Ellison James Ellison may refer to:
* James O. Ellison (1929–2014), U.S. federal judge
* James T. Ellison (1862–1920s), New York gangster
*James Ellison (actor) (1910–1993), American film actor
*James Ellison (footballer, born 1901) (1901–1958), En ...
, and was cast by DeMille.[ DeMille was quoted on his casting of Burgess: "I broke a rule of 25 years' standing when I chose Miss Burgess for the part of Louisa Cody. It was the first time that I have cast a player without previous screen experience in an important role. But, as soon as I saw Miss Burgess, I realized that she had the making of a strong and appealing screen personality."][
On January 3, 1937, journalist Eleanor Packer wrote an article on Burgess in a syndicated Los Angeles newspaper, noting: ]The surprising thing about Helen’s sudden leap from obscurity into fame is the fact that she has no trace of the startling, dramatic beauty which the world associates with Hollywood actresses. She is almost what is called ‘plain,’ or ‘homely.’ She would pass unnoticed in a crowd of most typical Hollywood girls. Why then did DeMille pick her out? She has something greater than mere beauty. Something more important to the screen than a standardized prettiness. She possesses what cameramen call a ‘photogenic face,’ one capable of revealing ‘inner emotions’ to the eye of the camera.
In 1937, she was cast as a lead in Charles Vidor
Charles Vidor (born Károly Vidor; July 27, 1900June 4, 1959) was a Hungarian film director. Among his film successes are ''The Bridge'' (1929), ''The Tuttles of Tahiti'' (1942), ''The Desperadoes'' (1943), ''Cover Girl'' (1944), '' Together A ...
's ''A Doctor's Diary
''A Doctor's Diary'' is a 1937 American drama film directed by Charles Vidor and written by David Boehm and Samuel Ornitz. The film stars George Bancroft, Helen Burgess, John Trent, Ruth Coleman, Ronald Sinclair and Molly Lamont. The film was ...
'', opposite George Bancroft
George Bancroft (October 3, 1800 – January 17, 1891) was an American historian, statesman and Democratic politician who was prominent in promoting secondary education both in his home state of Massachusetts and at the national and internati ...
. This was followed by a role in Paramount's low-budget crime film ''King of Gamblers
''King of Gamblers'' is a 1937 American low-budget gangster film directed by Robert Florey. Akim Tamiroff takes an unusual featured role as a slot-machine racketeer whose bombing of an uncooperative barber shop leads to a murder charge. (The fil ...
'' (1937), directed by Robert Florey
Robert Florey (14 September 1900 – 16 May 1979) was a French-American director, screenwriter, film journalist and actor.
Born as Robert Fuchs in Paris, he became an orphan at an early age and was then raised in Switzerland. In 1920 he worked a ...
, in which she played a young woman being terrorized by mobsters. Her final film credit was in E.A. Dupont's '' Night of Mystery'' (1937).[
]
Marriage and death
Burgess eloped with Herbert Rutherford, a piano instructor, on January 27, 1937 in Yuma, Arizona
Yuma ( coc, Yuum) is a city in and the county seat of Yuma County, Arizona, United States. The city's population was 93,064 at the 2010 census, up from the 2000 census population of 77,515.
Yuma is the principal city of the Yuma, Arizona, M ...
; the marriage lasted two months, and was annulled on March 15, 1937.[ Two weeks later, on April 1, 1937, she contracted a ]cold
Cold is the presence of low temperature, especially in the atmosphere. In common usage, cold is often a subjective perception. A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero, defined as 0.00K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute thermodynamic ...
while on the set of ''Night of Mystery''. Over the ensuing week, Burgess's condition worsened, to the point that she was hospitalized with lobar pneumonia
Lobar pneumonia is a form of pneumonia characterized by inflammatory exudate within the intra-alveolar space resulting in consolidation that affects a large and continuous area of the lobe of a lung.
It is one of three anatomic classifications o ...
. On the morning of April 7, she was placed in an oxygen tent
An oxygen tent consists of a canopy placed over the head and shoulders, or over the entire body of a patient to provide oxygen at a higher level than normal. Some devices cover only a part of the face. Oxygen tents are sometimes confused with a ...
; she would die later that evening at her home in Hollywood. During her funeral on April 9, the crew of ''Night of Mystery'' were forced to continue filming "around" the scenes she had been unable to complete.[ At the time of her death, Burgess was scheduled to appear as the lead opposite ]George Raft
George Raft (born George Ranft; September 26, 1901 – November 24, 1980) was an American film actor and dancer identified with portrayals of gangsters in crime melodramas of the 1930s and 1940s. A stylish leading man in dozens of movies, Raft is ...
in Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), known as Fritz Lang, was an Austrian film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety'', August 4, 1976, p. 6 ...
's '' You and Me'' (1938).
She is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California
Glendale is a city in the San Fernando Valley and Verdugo Mountains regions of Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, California, United States. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. Census the population was 196,543, up from ...
.
Filmography
References
Sources
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Burgess, Helen
1916 births
1937 deaths
Actresses from Los Angeles
Actresses from Portland, Oregon
Actresses from Tacoma, Washington
American film actresses
Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)
20th-century American actresses
Deaths from pneumonia in California
Los Angeles High School alumni
Paramount Pictures contract players
University High School (Los Angeles) alumni