Helen Westley

Helen Westley (March 28, 1875 – December 12, 1942) was an American character actress.

Career

She was one of the members on the original board of the Theatre Guild, and appeared in many of their productions, among them Peer Gynt, and some of their productions of plays by George Bernard Shaw—Pygmalion, Caesar and Cleopatra, Heartbreak House, Major Barbara, The Doctor's Dilemma, and The Apple Cart. She appeared in the original Broadway productions of two plays which, after her death, would be turned into classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals; they were Green Grow The Lilacs, which became Oklahoma!, and Liliom, which became Carousel. Westley played Aunt Eller in the former, and Mrs. Muskat (who became Mrs. Mullin in Carousel) in the latter. She also appeared in the original Broadway production of Eugene O'Neill's marathon play, Strange Interlude.

Westley played roles, both comic and dramatic, in many films. They included Death Takes a Holiday, All This and Heaven Too, four films opposite child star Shirley Temple (including Dimples and Heidi), the 1934 surprise hit Anne of Green Gables, the 1935 film version of Roberta, and the 1936 film version of Show Boat, in which she replaced Edna May Oliver, when Ms. Oliver declined to repeat her stage role as Parthy Ann Hawks. She also appeared in Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm in 1938 with Shirley Temple and Randolph Scott as Aunt Miranda. In 1936 she played in "Banjo on My Knee" with Barbara Stanwyck, Walter Brennan and Buddy Ebsen.

Family Life

Westley was married to John Westley, an actor on Broadway, in the early 1900s. The marriage ended in divorce. A biography piece written on Helen Westley on IMDb states that Westley had one daughter.

External links

• Helen Westley at the Internet Movie Database
• Helen Westley at Internet Broadway Database
• Helen Westley at Findagrave
• Helen Westley portrait NYP Library