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Helen Walker Profile
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| 17 July 20 | is born in Worcester, Massachusetts |
| c. 41 | is down to her last 18 pennies |
| c. 42 | is Dorothy McGuire’s understudy in Claudia |
| is on Broadway in Jason |
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| takes newcomer Gail Russell under her wing and introduces her to the tranquilizing benefits of vodka |
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| August 42 | she or Loretta Young will star in Buddy De Sylva’s upcoming Her Heart in Her Throat |
| feuds with June Havoc while filming Brewster’s Millions. Finally, they write uncomplimentary things on each other’s dressing room walls. |
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| ? | marries studio lawyer Robert F. Blumofe |
| November 45 | makes her 14th trip to the blood bank |
| 46 | divorces Blumofe. He’s 36; she’s 28. He will later become vice president of United Artists and marry actress Doris Dowling in 1956. |
| 31 December 46 | is en route from Palm Springs to Hollywood in director Lucky Humberstone’s car when she gives 21-year-old Robert E. Lee of March Field and two others a ride. When the car she is driving overturns near Redlands, the young soldier is killed. She suffers severe fractures, including a fractured pelvis. No other car is involved. Later, her two other passengers, Philip Mercado and Joseph Montaldo, testify that she was driving at a high rate of speed. |
| 7 January 47 | is charged with manslaughter in a complaint filed in Redlands, California |
| January 47 | director Lucky Humberstone is at her bedside constantly |
| the accident costs her her job in Heaven Only Knows. The picture was in its fifth week of production, and she was in about 25 percent of it. Producer Seymour Nebenzal figures the cost of reshooting her scenes will be $100,000. |
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| 4 February 47 | leaves the hospital |
| 9 April 47 | is cleared of manslaughter charges because of "insufficient and uncertain evidence" by a San Bernardino, California, court. The surviving passengers, Mercado and Montaldo, file civil suits against her for damages because of serious injuries. |
| April 47 | two days after her acquittal, she dines with Humberstone at the Santa Monica Mayfair. Her friends think she and Lucky might marry when she is stronger. |
| c. August 49 | meets Edward DuDomaine on a street corner in front of the Goldwyn Studio in Hollywood. He asks her out to the beach, and she says yes. |
| September 49 | her romance with Humberstone is over. Her new flame is Ted DuDomaine. |
| April 50 | marries department store official Edward N. DuDomaine in Los Angeles. He’s 41; she’s 27. |
| July 51 | is under observation at St. John’s Hospital |
| May 52 | separates from DuDomaine |
| 10 June 52 | divorces fur buyer DuDomaine on grounds that he forced her to give up screen contracts and her motion picture friends. She will get $50 monthly alimony for two years or until she remarries. |
| May 53 | dines at the Sportmen’s Lodge with 28-year-old actor Bill Hudson. It’s her first time out since her recent surgery. |
| June 53 | dines with ex-husband DuDomaine at the Sportsmen’s Lodge |
| her divorce from DuDomaine becomes final. DuDomaine will die at age 84 in 1992 in Los Angeles. |
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| August 54 | is seen at the Sportsmen’s Lodge with Les Hafner |
| 55 | arrives at a birthday party bearing gifts wrapped in her old movie stills |
| ? | alcohol pushes her towards paranoia and emotional collapse |
| 60 | a fire destroys her house. Dinah Shore, Hugh O’Brian, Ruth Roman, Vivian Blaine, and others stage a benefit for her |
| ? | appears in Once More, with Feeling at the La Jolla Playhouse |
| ? | surgery fails to arrest a cancerous malignancy, which first attacks her lower jaw. She retires to her small North Hollywood apartment. |
| 10 March 68 | dies at age 47 at home in North Hollywood from cancer. Her mother, Mrs. Irene Oberempt of Boylston, and two sisters survive. |
| ? | her body is flown to Boylston, Massachusetts, for funeral services |
| November 79 | her mother dies at age 81 in Worcester |
| Sources: Fallen Angels by Kirk Crivello, The Lowell Sun, Nevada State Journal, The New York Times, Reno Evening Gazette, Pottstown Mercury, Middletown Times Herald, The Berkshire Evening Eagle, The News, The Post-Standard, The Monessen Daily Independent, The Lethbridge Herald, Van Nuys News, www.IMDb.com, www.Ancestry.com | |
| Recommended Books: | |
| Links: Filmography JSR Pages: Helen Walker | |