Barbara Hale

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Barbara Hale
Barbara Hale in The Houston Story trailer.jpg
in The Houston Story (1956)
Born (1922-04-18) April 18, 1922 (age 91)
DeKalb, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation Actress
Years active 1943–2000
Spouse(s) Bill Williams
(1946–92; his death; 3 children)

Barbara Hale (born April 18, 1922) is an American actress best known for her role as legal secretary Della Street on more than 250 episodes of the long-running Perry Mason television series and later reprising the role in 30 made-for-TV movies.

Contents

Acting career[edit]

Hale was born in DeKalb, Illinois, to Luther Ezra Hale, a landscape gardener, and his wife, Wilma Colvin.[1] She is of Scots-Irish ancestry.[2] Hale graduated from high school in Rockford, Illinois, then attended the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, planning to become an artist. Her performing career began in Chicago when she started modeling to pay for her education. She moved to Hollywood in 1943, and made her first screen appearances playing small parts (often uncredited).

Hale was under contract to RKO Radio Pictures through the late 1940s. She appeared in Higher and Higher (1943) with Frank Sinatra; played leading lady to Robert Mitchum in West of the Pecos (1945); enjoyed top billing in both Lady Luck (1946) opposite Robert Young and The Window (1949) with Arthur Kennedy; and co-starred in Jolson Sings Again (1949), with Larry Parks playing Al Jolson and Hale as Jolson's wife, Ellen Clark. She played the top-billed title role in Lorna Doone (1951) and portrayed Julia Hancock in The Far Horizons (1955) with Fred MacMurray and Charlton Heston.

Her flourishing movie career more or less ended when Hale accepted her best known role, Della Street, secretary to attorney Perry Mason, in the TV series with Raymond Burr. The show ran from 1957 to 1966, and she reprised the role in several television movies. Her last performance was in 2000 at age 78. In 1967 she guest starred on the ABC series Custer. Hale also had a featured role in the 1970 ensemble film Airport, playing the wife of a jetliner pilot (Dean Martin).

Spokesperson[edit]

Barbara Hale also is remembered as a spokeswoman for Amana, makers of Radarange microwave ovens, memorably intoning, "If it doesn't say Amana, it's not a Radarange."[3]

Private life[edit]

In 1945 during the filming of West of the Pecos, Hale met actor Bill Williams. They married the following year and became the parents of two daughters, Jodi and Juanita, and a son, actor William Katt. Katt played detective Paul Drake, Jr., with her in several made-for-television Perry Mason movies. She also guest-starred as the mother of Ralph Hinkley (played by Katt) in an episode of The Greatest American Hero (Episode 29, "Who's Woo in America"), and appeared as his mother in the movie Big Wednesday (1978).

Bill Williams died of cancer in 1992, after 46 years of marriage. Hale is a cancer survivor, and is now a grandmother; she is retired and is a follower of the Bahá'í Faith.[4]

Tributes[edit]

Hale has been recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She won an Emmy Award in 1959 and was nominated a second time in 1961.

Movies[edit]

  • Gildersleeve's Bad Day (1943) - Girl at Party Getting Peavey to Donate
  • Mexican Spitfire's Blessed Event (1943) - Girl at Airport
  • The Seventh Victim (1943) - Subway Passenger
  • The Iron Major (1943) - Sarah Cavanaugh
  • Gildersleeve on Broadway (1943) - Stocking Salesgirl
  • Government Girl (1943) - Girl in Hotel Lobby
  • Around the World (1943) - Barbara
  • Higher and Higher (1943) - Katherine Keating
  • Prunce and Politics (1944)
  • The Falcon Out West (1944) - Marion Colby
  • Goin' To Town (1944) - Patty
  • Heavenly Days (1944) - Angie
  • The Falcon in Hollywood (1944) - Peggy Callahan
  • West of the Pecos (1945) - Rill Lambeth
  • First Yank into Tokyo (1945) - Abby Drake
  • Lady Luck (1946) - Mary Audrey
  • A Likely Story (1947) - Vickie North
  • The Boy with Green Hair (1948) - Miss Brand
  • The Clay Pigeon (1949) - Martha Gregory
  • The Window (1949) - Mrs. Mary Woodry
  • Jolson Sings Again (1949) - Ellen Clark
  • And Baby Makes Three (1949) - Jacqueline 'Jackie' Walsh
  • The Jackpot (1950) - Amy Lawrence
  • Emergency Wedding (1950) - Dr. Helen Hunt
  • Lorna Doone (1951) - Lorna Doone
  • The First Time (1952) - Betsey Bennet
  • Rainbow ‘Round My Shoulder (1952) - Self
  • Last of the Comanches (1953) - Julia Lanning
  • Seminole (1953) - Revere Muldoon
  • The Lone Hand (1953) - Sarah Jane Skaggs
  • A Lion Is in the Streets (1953) - Verity Wade
  • Unchained (1955) - Mary Davitt
  • The Far Horizons (1955) - Julia Hancock
  • The Houston Story (1956) - Zoe Crane
  • The Oklahoman (1957) - Ann Lorens
  • 7th Cavalry (1956) - Martha Kellogg
  • Desert Hell (1958) - Celie Edwards
  • Buckskin (1968) - Sarah Cody
  • Airport (1970) - Sarah Bakersfeld Demerest
  • The Red, White and Black (1970) - Mrs. Alice Grierson
  • The Giant Spider Invasion (1975) - Dr. Jenny Langer
  • Big Wednesday (1978) - Mrs. Barlow

The made-for-TV Perry Mason movies[edit]

  • Perry Mason Returns (1985)
  • The Case of the Notorious Nun (1986)
  • The Case of the Shooting Star (1986)
  • The Case of the Lost Love (1987)
  • The Case of the Sinister Spirit (1987)
  • The Case of the Murdered Madam (1987)
  • The Case of the Scandalous Scoundrel (1987)
  • The Case of the Avenging Ace (1988)
  • The Case of the Lady in the Lake (1988)
  • The Case of the Lethal Lesson (1989)
  • The Case of the Musical Murder (1989)
  • The Case of the All-Star Assassin (1989)
  • The Case of the Poisoned Pen (1990)
  • The Case of the Desperate Deception (1990)
  • The Case of the Silenced Singer (1990)
  • The Case of the Defiant Daughter (1990)
  • The Case of the Ruthless Reporter (1991)
  • The Case of the Maligned Mobster (1991)
  • The Case of the Glass Coffin (1991)
  • The Case of the Fatal Fashion (1991)
  • The Case of the Fatal Framing (1992)
  • The Case of the Reckless Romeo (1992)
  • The Case of the Heartbroken Bride (1992)
  • The Case of the Skin-Deep Scandal (1993)
  • The Case of the Telltale Talk Show Host (1993)
  • The Case of the Killer Kiss (1993)
  • The Case of the Wicked Wives (1993)
  • The Case of the Lethal Lifestyle (1994)
  • The Case of the Grimacing Governor (1994)
  • The Case of the Jealous Jokester (1995)

All other television[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Descendants of John Hale Sr. (Frontiersman) - Hale Roots
  2. ^ Barbara Hale - The Private Life and Times of Barbara Hale. Barbara Hale Pictures
  3. ^ 1973 Radarange TV commercial (first 30 seconds of video) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auSzyKg4bHE
  4. ^ The Associated Press (2000-12-30). "Bahai faith teaches universal acceptance of God". 

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Barbara Hale
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