Helen Gallagher
Helen Gallagher | |
---|---|
![]() Gallagher in 1971 | |
Born | New York City, U.S. | July 19, 1926
Occupation | Actress, dancer, singer, makeup artist |
Years active | 1944–present |
Spouse(s) | Frank Wise (divorced 1958) |
Awards | Tony Award, Featured Actress in a Musical, 1952 Pal Joey; Lead Actress in a Musical 1971 No, No, Nanette, Daytime Emmy Award, Lead Actress 1976, 77, 88 |
Helen Gallagher (born July 19, 1926) is an American actress, dancer, and singer. She is the recipient of three Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, and a Drama Desk Award.
Early years[]
Born in Brooklyn, she was raised in Scarsdale, New York, and the Bronx. Her parents separated and she was raised by an aunt. She suffered from asthma.[1]
Career[]
Stage[]
Gallagher was known for decades as a Broadway performer. She appeared in Make a Wish, Hazel Flagg, Portofino, High Button Shoes, and Sweet Charity (for which she received a 1967 Tony Award nomination for Featured Actress in a Musical), eventually assuming the title role, and closing the original Broadway run.[2] She also appeared in Cry for Us All.
In 1952, she won a Tony Award for her work in the revival of Pal Joey. In 1971, she won her second Tony for her role in the revival of the musical No, No, Nanette.[2] Her song-and-dance number with Bobby Van from that show, "You Can Dance with Any Girl", is preserved on youtube through its performance on the Tony Awards television broadcast. She later took on the role of Sue Smith in the Papermill Playhouse revival of the show, playing the role Keeler played a quarter century earlier.
Her first starring role on Broadway came in 1953 as title character in Hazel Flagg, based on the 1937 Carole Lombard movie Nothing Sacred.[3] The role earned her a feature-photo shoot for Life. Gallagher appeared in the 1977 movie Roseland opposite Christopher Walken. An aficionada of Rodgers and Hammerstein, she appeared on a special tribute to Richard Rodgers on The Bell Telephone Hour.[4]
Television[]
Despite extensive work on Broadway, she is perhaps best known as matriarch Maeve Ryan on Ryan's Hope, a role she played for the show's entire duration, from 1975 to 1989. She was nominated for five Daytime Emmy Awards for her work on the serial, winning in 1976, 1977, and 1988.[4]
At the time she was cast in Ryan's Hope, Gallagher taught singing in her home three times a week. Michael Hawkins, who played the first Frank Ryan, was one of her students.[5]
As the show progressed into the 1980s, the ratings took a steep slide. When ABC executives cancelled Ryan's Hope, Claire Labine ended the final episode with Maeve at the family bar, singing "Danny Boy". Almost immediately after the cancellation of Ryan's Hope, Gallagher had a two-day guest stint on Another World, and has appeared in All My Children as a strict nurse and on One Life to Live as a sex therapist (whose son married Dr. Dorian Lord). She has continued to act in various off-Broadway and professional theater productions.[4]
Later years[]
In 1984, Gallagher starred in the title role of Tallulah, a musical stage biography of actress Tallulah Bankhead.[6] In 1990s, she guest-starred on Law & Order and The Cosby Mysteries. In 1997, she starred in the independent LGBT-themed drama film Neptune’s Rocking Horse.[7]
She is currently a faculty member at Herbert Berghof Studio in New York City.[8]
Theater credits[]
Opening date | Closing date | Title | Role | Theatre |
---|---|---|---|---|
December 7, 1944 | May 12, 1945 | Seven Lively Arts | Understudy Corps de Ballet |
Ziegfeld |
September 6, 1945 | September 15, 1945 | Mr. Strauss Goes to Boston | Corps de Ballet | New Century |
December 21, 1945 | June 29, 1946 | Billion Dollar Baby | Chorine Dancer Neighbor |
Alvin |
March 13, 1947 | July 31, 1948 | Brigadoon | Dancer | Ziegfeld |
October 9, 1947 | July 2, 1949 | High Button Shoes | Nancy | New Century Shubert Broadway |
October 13, 1949 | March 18, 1950 | Touch and Go | Daughter Neighbor The Girl Theatregoer |
Broadhurst Broadway |
April 18, 1951 | July 14, 1951 | Make a Wish | Poupette | Winter Garden |
January 3, 1952 | April 18, 1953 | Pal Joey | Gladys Bumps | Broadhurst |
February 11, 1953 | September 19, 1953 | Hazel Flagg | Hazel Flagg | Mark Hellinger |
May 13, 1954 | November 24, 1956 | The Pajama Game | Gladys (replacement) | St. James Shubert Theatre |
April 20, 1955 | May 31, 1955 | Guys and Dolls | Miss Adelaide | City Center |
May 18, 1955 | May 29, 1955 | Finian's Rainbow | Sharon McLonergan | City Center |
April 9, 1957 | May 5, 1957 | Brigadoon | Meg Brockie | Adelphi |
February 21, 1958 | February 22, 1958 | Portofino | Kitty | Adelphi |
Mar 19, 1958 | March 30, 1958 | Oklahoma! | Ado Annie Carnes | City Center |
December 31, 1964 | January 23, 1965 | Royal Flush | Understudy | Shubert |
January 29, 1966 | July 15, 1967 | Sweet Charity | Nickie understudy Charity replacement Charity |
Palace |
May 24, 1966 | January 3, 1970 | Mame | replacement Agnes Gooch |
Winter Garden Broadway |
April 8, 1970 | April 15, 1970 | Cry for Us All | Bessie Legg | Broadhurst |
January 19, 1971 | February 3, 1973 | No, No, Nanette | Lucille Early | 46th Street |
November 11, 1972 | February 11, 1973 | Much Ado About Nothing | Choreography assistant to Donald Saddler | Winter Garden |
April 26, 1976 | May 9, 1976 | Tickles by Tucholsky | Theatre Four | |
October 5, 1977 | November 27, 1977 | The Misanthrope | Arsinoe | Joseph Papp Public Theater New York Shakespeare Festival |
June 14, 1978 | December 3, 1978 | The American Dance Machine | Choreographic reconstruction | Century |
October 10, 1978 | November 12, 1978 | A Broadway Musical | Maggie Simpson | Theatre of the Riverside Church |
October 8, 1979 | August 28, 1982 | Sugar Babies | Replacement | Mark Hellinger |
May 14, 1981 | October 25, 1981 | I Can't Keep Running in Place | Beth | Westside |
June 13, 1983 | Unknown | Tallulah | Tallulah Bankhead | Westside Arts |
August 23, 1983 | September 5, 1983 | Same Time, Next Year | Doris | Ivoryton Playhouse |
March 9, 1987 | March 9, 1987 | Star Dust | Performer | Sardi's |
May 17, 1990 | July 8, 1990 | Annie 2 | Fran Riley | Norma Terris |
September 6, 1990 | September 9, 1990 | Money Talks | Promenade | |
June 1996 | June 1996 | Home | Mother | Ensemble Studio Theatre |
April 9, 1997 | May 27, 1997 | No, No, Nanette | Papermill Playhouse | |
January 28, 2000 | January 30, 2000 | 70, Girls, 70 | Gert | York Theatre Company |
Film and television[]
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1949 | Manhattan Showcase | Host | |
1951 | Don Ameche's Musical Playhouse | Self | Jan 25, 1951 |
1951 | Don Ameche's Musical Playhouse | Self | Feb 4, 1951 |
1951 | Paul Whitman's Goodyear Revue | Self | May 20, 1951 |
1951 | General Electric Guest House | Self | August 12, 1951 |
1951 | The Mel Torme Show | Self | November 5, 1951 |
1951 | Colgate Comedy Hour | Self | Episodes 1.35 and 1.40 |
1952 | The Ezio Pinza Show | February 1, 1952 | |
1953 | The Ed Sullivan Show | Self | Episodes 6.25 and 6.45 |
1954 | Kraft Television Theatre | TV series, episode: Pardon My Prisoner | |
1955 | Colgate Comedy Hour | Self | Episode 5.33 |
1955 | A.N.T.A. Album of 1955 | Self | |
1958 | The Ed Sullivan Show | Self | Episodes 11.17, 11.19 and 11.32 |
1960 | Strangers When We Meet | Betty Anders | |
1960 | Hallmark Hall of Fame | Lise | TV series, episode: Shangri-La |
1961 | The Bell Telephone Hour | Self | TV series, episode: The Music of Richard Rodgers |
1961 | Yves Montand on Broadway | Self | |
1971 | The David Frost Show | Self | Episode 3.109 |
1971 | The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson | Self | Feb 4, 1971 |
1972 | 26th Tony Awards | Self | |
1973 | 27th Tony Awards | Self | |
1976 | The American Woman: Portraits of Courage | Mary Harris Jones | |
1977 | Roseland | Cleo | |
1975–1989 | Ryan's Hope | Maeve Ryan | TV series, 789 episodes |
1982 | Family Feud | Self | Feb 8, 1982 |
1989 | Live with Regis | Self | Jan 13, 1989 |
1989 | Entertainment Tonight | Self | Jan 13, 1989 |
1989 | Another World | Hannah Tuttle | TV series, 2 episodes |
1993 | Law & Order | Flo Bishop | TV series, episode: Born Bad |
1995 | The Cosby Mysteries | TV series, episode: Last Tango | |
1995 | All My Children | Nurse Harris | TV series, 2 episodes |
1997 | Neptune's Rocking Horse | Sadie | |
1997–1998 | One Life to Live | Dr. Maud Boylan | TV series, 6 episodes |
2009 | American Masters | Self | TV series, episode: Jerome Robbins: Something to Dance About |
References[]
- ^ Klein, Alvin (August 21, 1983). "Soap Opera Star at Ivoryton". The New York Times.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "("Helen Gallagher" search results)". Tony Awards. Tony Award Productions. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
- ^ Inc, Time (1953-03-09). "The Little Girl They Had to Star". Life (March 9, 1953): 102–106.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Helen Gallagher at IMDb
- ^ Wilson, Earl (July 16, 1975). "Helen Gallagher Slips Into Soaps". The Milwaukee Sentinel.
- ^ Frank, Leah D. (August 12, 1984). "Tallulah: Glitter and Self Pity". The New York Times.
- ^ Woods, Mark (April 13, 1997). "Neptune's Rocking Horse".
- ^ "Helen Gallagher". HB Studio. Archived from the original on 24 March 2015. Retrieved 26 March 2019.
External links[]
- Helen Gallagher at the Internet Broadway Database
- Helen Gallagher at IMDb
- Helen Gallagher at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
- Helen Gallagher at Broadway World
- 2003 interview on TheaterMania
- 2019 interview about High Button Shoes on the New York City Center blog
- 1926 births
- Living people
- 20th-century American actresses
- 21st-century American actresses
- Actresses from New York City
- American musical theatre actresses
- American film actresses
- American soap opera actresses
- Donaldson Award winners
- Tony Award winners
- Daytime Emmy Award winners
- Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series winners
- People from Scarsdale, New York
- People from Brooklyn
- People from the Bronx