| Helen Vinson | |
| Birth Name: | Helen Rulfs |
| Birth Date: | 17 September 1907 |
| Birth Place: | Beaumont, Texas, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Chapel Hill, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Resting Place: | Oak Grove Cemetery, Nacogdoches County, Texas, U.S. |
| Occupation: | Actress |
| Years Active: | 1932–1945 |
Helen Vinson (born Helen Rulfs,[1] September 17, 1907 – October 7, 1999)[2] was an American film actress who appeared in 40 films between 1932 and 1945.
Vinson was born in Beaumont, Texas,[3] the daughter of oil man Edward Rulfs.[4] She developed a passion for horses during her youth. She studied at the University of Texas at Austin.
In Austin, she met March Culmore, director of the Little Theater in Houston, Texas. Culmore took her as a pupil and she was soon playing lead roles with the theater. From Texas, she moved quickly to Broadway, where her credits included Los Angeles (1927), Death Takes a Holiday (1931), Berlin (1931), and The Fatal Alibi (1932).[5] A succession of performances followed and led to a contract with Warner Bros. Later, she regretted her quick leap to Hollywood and motion pictures, saying, "If I'd stayed in New York longer, I'd be getting a much bigger salary out here now."
Vinson's pre-Code screen roles often featured her as the 'other' woman with an active romantic life. Her first film role was Jewel Robbery (1932), which starred William Powell and Kay Francis. She appeared as Doris Delafield in The Kennel Murder Case, starring Powell as Philo Vance. One of her memorable roles was in The Wedding Night (1935), when she played the wife of Gary Cooper's character and the rival of Anna Sten, in a story about the Connecticut tobacco fields. In the RKO film In Name Only (1939), she was cast as the treacherous friend of Carole Lombard, Kay Francis and Cary Grant's characters. She played an undercover federal agent posing as a femme fatale opposite Richard Cromwell in the anti-Nazi drama Enemy Agent (1940). She followed that role with that of Helen Draque in The Thin Man Goes Home.
Vinson's film career ended in 1945. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street.
Vinson married Harry Nelson Vickerman, a carpet manufacturer, in Houston, Texas, in May 1925. They divorced on February 7, 1934.[6]
In 1935, she married Fred Perry, a British tennis champion. They lived in England before moving to Hollywood. They divorced in 1938, after which she married Donald Hardenbrook, a "wealthy New York socialite".
Away from film-making and following her retirement, Vinson made frequent trips to New York City to see Broadway shows, visited friends in her home state of Texas, and enjoyed the Mardi Gras in New Orleans. She loved horses and had a private mount named Arrabella.
Helen Vinson died in Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 1999, aged 92.