- Born
- Died
- Height5′ 5″ (1.65 m)
- Though the circumstances of Helen Holmes' birth are somewhat hazy (sources place it in either Chicago or Louisville, KY, in mid-June or early July of 1893), what isn't hazy is that she was, with Pearl White, the queen of the railroad serials of the mid-teens and early '20s. Holmes always played a strong-willed, independent and resourceful heroine, just as capable of running after, jumping on and stopping a runaway train as she was batting her eyes at the male "hero". Although she was convent-educated, her parents were poor and could barely afford her education, so as she got older she became a photographer's model to help pay the family bills.
Her brother's ill health necessitated a family move from cold, damp Chicago to the hot, dry climate of California's Death Valley. It was there that her taste for adventure was given full rein. In that desolate, sparsely populated country she prospected for gold and for a short time lived among a local Indian tribe. Her brother soon died, though, and in 1910 Helen moved to New York and began appearing in local plays. She had become friends with film star Mabel Normand, and after a short correspondence Normand invited her to Hollywood, where she got her friend some modeling and movie work. Holmes soon achieved success, and by 1913 was starring in her own films. She met her husband, director J.P. McGowan, at Kalem Studios while she was acting in, and he was directing, The Hazards of Helen (1914) serial. The two soon formed their own production company, and their films, both serials and features, achieved great success. By 1919, though, Mutual Films, the company that distributed their movies, had gone under. Without Mutual's financial backing the budgets on their films shrank precipitously, and not being able to afford to make railroad serials anymore, Helen was now turned into a newspaperwoman, a switch that did not sit well with her fans. Although she continued to make films and serials, many of them weren't starring roles anymore, and the fact that a good percentage of them were for the cheap independent market meant that relatively few audiences actually saw them.
Her marriage to McGowan broke up in 1925. She subsequently married a movie stuntman, and basically retired from the screen in 1926, although she made a few appearances in small parts over the next 20 years.
She kept her hand in the business by becoming a trainer for animals used in the movies, but that lasted until her husband died in 1946. Her health had been deteriorating for several years by that time, and she died of a heart attack in 1950.- IMDb Mini Biography By: A. Nonymous
- SpousesLloyd A. Saunders(? - 1946) (his death)
- Gained fame for her portrayal of an adventurous young woman in the "Hazards of Helen" serials, a series of films in which railroads played a great part (she was either jumping onto, off, running across the tops of, or escaping from railroad cars, locomotives, train stations, etc.). By coincidence, when she was growing up in Chicago her father was an employee of the Illinois Central Railroad. The films were directed by her then-husband, J.P. McGowan. Also by coincidence, when McGowan was growing up in Australia his father, who had immigrated from Scotland, worked for the South Australian and later the New South Wales Railways.
- Performed her own stunts in the Kalem serial The Hazards of Helen (1914).
- Introduced to her husband J.P. McGowan by Mabel Normand.
- Entered films with Mack Sennett at Keystone in 1912.
- Co-founded, with husband J.P. McGowan, production company Signal Films.
- [on why she returned to films in 1936 after a ten-year absence] I had made money. [Lloyd A. Saunders] and I married in 1926 and I decided to quit. We went up in Sonora County [California] and bought a cattle ranch. Everything was fine and we kept on making money . . . for a time. Then the bottom dropped out of the cattle market and our "little grey home in the West" went down in the financial earthquake.
- If a photoplay actress wants to achieve real thrills, she must write them into the scenario herself.
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