She was born Helen Ruth Mann on November 4, 1915 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. Helen's family moved to Los Angeles, California following the 1929 stock market crash. At the age of thirteen she made her film debut in the 1929 musical Happy Days. She appeared in numerous comedy shorts including For The Love Of Fanny, He's A Honey, and The Girl Rush. The petite actress was five feet, two inches tall with blonde hair. In 1931 a movie magazine offered $750.00 to anyone who could up with a new screen name for her. Helen was offered a contract at Universal for $60 a week. She costarred with Barbara Stanwyck in Ladies They Talk About and with Loretta Young in Employee's Entrance.
On October 7, 1933 she married married comedy writer Warren Burke. Unfortunately by this time her career had stalled and she was only being cast in bit parts. Her final role was in the 1935 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 at 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.
