- Born
- Died
- Birth nameHelen Margarite Burgess
- Height5′ 1½″ (1.56 m)
- Young and full of promise, Paramount contract player Helen Burgess possessed a lovely, sweet-faced quality, but made only four films during her lifetime. Born April 26, 1916, the rather demure Portland, Oregon beauty was given an auspicious debut in Cecil B. DeMille's epic bio-western The Plainsman (1936). Discovered by DeMille himself with only brief stage experience behind her, the film starred Gary Cooper as Wild Bill Hickok and Jean Arthur as Calamity Jane. Helen was fifth billed as Louisa Frederici Cody, the young bride of Wild West showman Buffalo Bill Cody, played by James Ellison.
Helen went on to co-star in lesser "B" pictures, one opposite George Bancroft in the drama A Doctor's Diary (1937), and a second femme lead in King of Gamblers (1937) supporting Claire Trevor. She was busy filming her fourth movie Night of Mystery (1937) when she caught a chill that resulted in a serious cold. This, in turn, developed into lobar pneumonia. Helen died in Beverly Hills on April 7, 1937, weeks before reaching her 21st birthday, and only months after the release of her first and best known film "The Plainsman." One can only wonder what was in store for this future star. She was buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net
- SpouseHerbert Rutherford(January 27, 1937 - March 15, 1937) (annulled)
- Her role as Louisa Cody in Paramount Pictures' The Plainsman (1936) was played eight years later by Maureen O'Hara in yet another biography of Buffalo Bill Cody, this time at Twentieth Century-Fox, entitled Buffalo Bill (1944) starring Joel McCrea.
- Her sister Stella Mary Burgess had a small role in Reap the Wild Wind (1942).
- Her 1937 marriage to piano player Herbert Rutherford lasted only a week because he refused to live with her. Helen filed for an annulment and told the court he had only married her to spite another woman.
- She was discovered by producer Cecil B. Demille at the age of nineteen. He cast her in the film The Plainsman and said "she was the the finest natural actress I have ever seen".
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