Helen Bennett

Biography

Helen Bennett was a beauty queen, a model and a character actress best known for her blond coiffure. She was born in Springfield, Mo., and in 1937 was awarded the title Miss Missouri in the Miss America Contest. After a stint at the University of Missouri and the Goodman Theater acting school in Chicago, she set her sights on New York City where she found work as a model. While in New York, she also found work appearing in such 1940s Broadway shows as "Dream Girl." Her attention to style and grooming earned her a much coveted recognition by Monsieur Leon, a prominent New York hairstylist who promoted -- some say invented -- the well-groomed "new look" in the late 1940s. Leon named Bennett along with actresses Claudette Colbert, Kathryn Grayson, Gertrude Lawrence and Norma Shearer as the five women in America with the best-dressed hair. Bennett's stake in Hollywood garnered her such appearances in movie serials as "Lost City of the Jungle" and "The Scarlet Horseman," in 1946, the 1956 movie "On the Threshold of Space" and 1961's "Return to Peyton Place" 1961. Her work also includes radio and her role as a founding memember of the Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters. She died at the age of 89 on Sunday, February 25, 2001, in Santa Monica, California.