Helen Mann

Biography

Helen Ruth Mann was born in Ft. Worth, Texas. Her father, Gordon Mann, was a wealthy oil tycoon. When she was a child she danced in local stage productions and started performing in vaudeville. At the age of thirteen she made her film debut in the 1929 musical Happy Days. Helen's family moved to Los Angeles following the 1929 stock market crash. The beautiful blonde starred in the comedy shorts For The Love Of Fanny, He's A Honey, and The Girl Rush with Vernon Dent. In October of 1933 she married comedy writer Warren Burke. Unfortunately by 1935 her career had stalled and she was only being cast in bit parts. Her final role was in the musical Folies Bergère de Paris. After divorcing her husband she married Adolphe Pagano, a film executive, in 1939. The couple divorced a few years later. Helen's third marriage, to Frank C. Lang, only lasted eight months. Then she moved in with her parents and fell into a deep depression. Tragically on April 17, 1947 she swallowed concentrated ammonia. Three days later, on April 20, she died Glendale Community hospital. She had committed suicide at the young age of thirty-one. Helen was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.