Helen Amelia Gilbert (July 4, 1915 – October 23, 1995)
was an American film actress and musician.
Early years
Gilbert was born in Pennsylvania and was raised in
Warren, Ohio
Warren is a city in and the county seat of Trumbull County, Ohio, United States. Located in northeastern Ohio, Warren lies approximately northwest of Youngstown and southeast of Cleveland. The population was 39,201 at the 2020 census. The his ...
.
[ By the time she was 10, she and her family lived in ]Superior, Wisconsin
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, where her father ran a music store. Her father gave her a cello when she was 10, and "By the time she was 15, she was known in the northwest as a cello prodigy."[ ] Her talent with that instrument earned her a scholarship to the Curtis Institute of Music
The Curtis Institute of Music is a private conservatory in Philadelphia. It offers a performance diploma, Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in opera, and a Professional Studies Certificate in opera. All students attend on full scholarship.
Hi ...
and an opportunity to play at the Hollywood Bowl
The Hollywood Bowl is an amphitheatre in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It was named one of the 10 best live music venues in America by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine in 2018.
The Hollywood Bowl is known for its distin ...
.
Film
Gilbert was described in a May 22, 1939, syndicated newspaper column as "The only studio musician who ever became an actress."[ ] Writer Paul Harrison explained that Gilbert had been playing cello in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...
orchestra for two years when test director Fred M. Wilcox Fred Wilcox may refer to:
* Fred M. Wilcox (director) (1907–1964), American film director
* Fred M. Wilcox (South Dakota politician) (1858–?), South Dakota state senator
* Fred M. Wilcox (Wisconsin politician) (1870–1944), Wisconsin state ...
saw her "and asked why she was behind the camera instead of in front of it."[ (Two other newspaper articles, published August 6, 1939, and April 21, 1939, contained similar anecdotes, but in them ]W. S. Van Dyke
Woodbridge Strong Van Dyke II (Woody) (March 21, 1889 – February 5, 1943) was an American film director and writer who made several successful early sound films, including ''Tarzan the Ape Man'' in 1932, ''The Thin Man'' in 1934, ''San Francis ...
was the director who noticed Gilbert playing cello.[ ][ A fourth article, published February 18, 1940, says that film executive ]Winfield Sheehan
Winfield R. Sheehan (September 24, 1883 – July 25, 1945) was a film company executive. He was responsible for much of Fox Film Corporation's output during the 1920s and 1930s.
As studio head, he won an Academy Award for Best Picture for the film ...
"was impressed by her beauty, gave her a screen test and started her on her way to pictures.")[
Gilbert's film debut came in '']Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever
''Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever'' is a 1939 American romantic comedy film directed by W. S. Van Dyke. The plot is about Andy Hardy having a crush on his high school drama teacher, Miss Rose Meredith. It is the seventh of sixteen Andy Hardy films s ...
'' (1939) when she played Andy Hardy's dramatics teacher.[ That same year, she was featured as a patient who had trouble with her vision in '']The Secret of Dr. Kildare
''The Secret of Dr. Kildare'' is a 1939 American film directed by Harold S. Bucquet and produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. This was the fourth of a total of ten Dr. Kildare pictures, Lew Ayres starred all but the first.
Plot summary
Dr. Leonard G ...
'' (1939).
Gilbert's romantic proclivities may have cost her a role in '' The Wizard of Oz'' (1939). Eila Mell wrote in the book ''Casting Might-Have-Beens: A Film by Film Directory of Actors Considered for Roles Given to Others'': "Helen Gilbert was the first choice to play Glinda the Good Witch. The actress was interested and it seemed the deal would be made. After she ran off with Howard Hughes, the role was up for grabs." Her activities with Hughes may have cost Gilbert more than that one film role. An article by Lou Lumenick on the website of the ''New York Post
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com.
It was established ...
'' quotes from David J. Hogan’s book, ''The Wizard of Oz FAQ'': “Shortly after a young MGM contract player named Helen Gilbert was cast as Glinda, the inveterate girl-chaser Howard Hughes spirited her away for a fling … Gilbert was suspended, and the studio, which had been building her as a leading lady, allowed her contract to lapse after 1940.”
Personal life
Gilbert's first husband was orchestra leader Mischa Bakaleinikoff.[ They divorced November 18, 1939. On December 8, 1942, she was divorced by Seymour J. Chotiner, an attorney in Hollywood, California. They had been married five months. Her next husband was restaurateur Victor Makzoumet, who died in 1948.
On February 19, 1949, she married ]Johnny Stompanato
John Stompanato Jr. (October 10, 1925 – April 4, 1958), was a United States Marine who became a bodyguard and enforcer for gangster Mickey Cohen and the Cohen crime family.
In the mid-1950s, he began an abusive relationship with actress ...
. They divorced five months later in July 1949. She was also married to actor Bill Marshall and to M.O. Bryant, although the dates are unknown.
Her sixth (and penultimate) husband was Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...
casino manager James E. Durant. They married on September 28, 1949, in Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
. In June 1952, she went to court, asking for monthly alimony and a restraining order against Durant, alleging that he attempted to throw her out of an 11th floor window. Durant, meanwhile, claimed that the couple had been divorced already. Gilbert maintained that the decree in Arizona was invalid, but she dropped her suit after marrying M.O. Bryant, who was "associated with her in a Hollywood cafe."[ ]
All of the unions were childless.
Death
Gilbert died of cardiac arrest in Los Angeles on October 23, 1995, at age 80. Her body was cremated, and her ashes were scattered at sea.[
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gilbert, Helen
1915 births
1995 deaths
20th-century American actresses
American film actresses
Actresses from Pennsylvania
People from Warren, Ohio
Actresses from Ohio
Curtis Institute of Music alumni