Helen Twelvetrees
| Helen Twelvetrees | ||
| [[Image:Helen Twelvetrees 1934.jpg|220px| ]] Studio portrait, 1933 | ||
| Background information | ||
| Birth name | Helen Marie Jurgens | |
| Born | Dec 25, 1908 Brooklyn, New York, NY USA 
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| Died | Feb 13, 1958 - age 50 Middletown, Dauphin County, PA Sedative overdose | |
| Occupation | Actress | |
| Years active | 1927 - 1951 | |
| Spouse(s) | Clark Twelvetrees, 1927-1931 (divorced) Frank Woody, 1931-1936, divorced Conrad Payne, 1947-1958 her death | |
| Children | Jack Bryan Woody (b. 1932-d.2016) | |
| Nationality | American | |
Helen Twelvetrees (born, Helen Marie Jurgens, December 25, 1908 – died February 13, 1958) was an American film and theater actress, who became a top female star through a series of "women's pictures" in the early 1930s.
Allure.com website Updated: 2001 |
Born Helen Marie Jurgens in Brooklyn, New York on Christmas day 1908, her career was born after noted artist George Bradshaw Crandall painted a portrait of her which made the cover of the Saturday Evening Post.
She met her first husband, Clark Twelvetrees, while both were enrolled at the American Academy of Dramatic Art. They both worked on the New York stage but he couldn't get his acting career going and turned to alcohol. They divorced in 1931 and he died seven years later of acute alcoholism following a street brawl.
With her stage experience a big plus, Helen went to Hollywood with a number of other actors to replace the silent stars that could not or would not make the transition to talkies. Named a 1929 WAMPAS Baby Star she quickly signed a contract with Pathé/RKO. For most of her screen career she was cast a woman falling for and defending the wrong men. We recently watched her in Millie (1931) and she was quite good in her role spanning twenty years as innocent single, to happily married, to unhappily married, to happily single, to unhappily single, to a down and out woman on the edge. She left RKO when Selznick brought onboard the more versatile (and younger) Katharine Hepburn and spent the remainder of her screen career as a freelance actress. Helen made 33 films from 1929 to 1939 and then returned to summer stock. She never had a really happy off-screen life and her sudden death in 1958 was pronounced a suicide.
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