- Born
- Died
- Birth nameBarbara Bernice Hale
- Nickname
- Barb
- Height5′ 4″ (1.63 m)
- Barbara Hale was born on April 18, 1922 in DeKalb, Illinois, to Wilma (née Colvin) and Luther Ezra Hale, a landscape gardener. She had one sister, Juanita. As a young girl, she intended to major in art and drawing but to work her way through The Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, she began her professional career as a model for a comic strip called "Ramblin' Bill."
Hale is best remembered as Della Street, long-time secretary to attorney Perry Mason on the TV series Perry Mason (1957) from 1957 to 1966 and again in over 25 Perry Mason TV movies from 1985 to 1995. She married actor Bill Williams in 1946. He was best remembered for his portrayal of Kit Carson in The Adventures of Kit Carson (1951) from 1951 to 1955. The couple had three children - two daughters: Jody (born in 1947), Juanita (born in 1953), and, in 1951, a son, William Katt (the spitting image of his father), and actor in his own right, probably best known as the titular character's ill-fated prom date in the film Carrie (1976) and, later, as Ralph Hinkley, the klutzy superhero on the quirky 1980s adventure series The Greatest American Hero (1981) (from 1981 to 1986).- IMDb mini biography by: Brian Kelleher
- SpouseBill Williams(June 22, 1946 - September 21, 1992) (his death, 3 children)
- ChildrenJuanita Lauralee KattBarbara Willa Johanna 'Jody' Katt
- ParentsLuther Ezra HaleWilma Colvin
- RelativesJuanita Louise Hale(Sibling)
- Has an orchid named after her (cultivated by Raymond Burr).
- On the Perry Mason (1957) set she sketched constantly.
- Was one of the original 'Dr Pepper" girls featured in the soda company's calendars in the 1940s and 50s. Her photo can be see at the Dr Pepper Museum in Dublin, Texas (not to be confused with the Waco Dr Pepper Museum).
- The daughter of Wilma (Colvin) and Luther Ezra Hale, a landscape gardener, she married actor Bill Williams (birth name Hermann August Wilhelm Katt, hence the last name of their children was Katt). The couple had three children: Jody Katt (born 1947), William Katt (1951) and Juanita Katt (born 1953). She and William Katt, appeared together in Big Wednesday (1978), Who's Woo in America (1982), and in the NBC television-movie reboots of Perry Mason. She had six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
- During her time on Perry Mason (1957), Ms. Hale was known industry-wide for her screams. "She has the best shriek in Hollywood", Raymond Burr once said.
- [about her marriage to Bill Williams] It took me two years to talk him into marrying me.
- [about making West of the Pecos (1945)] I told the director, Edward Killy, about casting a smaller role in the film for Bill Williams [her future husband]. Killy was sort of a stocky man, and had a cigar. He was a short man, and that cigar was about as big as he was . . . He smoked all the time! But he said, "Sure, Barb, I'll get Bill Williams up here in Lone Pine". He knew I had a crush on Bill. So Killy said, "I'll give him one scene at the beginning of the shoot and another at the end of the picture, so Bill can stay the whole time!". That was so nice of him.
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