Introduction
Helen Broderick (August 11, 1891 – September 25, 1959) was an American film and stage actress known for her comic roles, especially as a wisecracking sidekick.
Career
She began on Broadway as a chorus girl in the Follies of 1907, the first of Florenz Ziegfeld's annual revues. By the late 1920s, she was playing leads and featured roles, most notably in Fifty Million Frenchmen. In the early 1930s, she starred in the revues The Band Wagon and As Thousands Cheer. Her film roles included her stage success made into a film: Fifty Million Frenchmen, the Astaire-Rogers movies Top Hat and Swing Time. She did leading roles in a few B movies, such as Murder on a Bridle Path.
The wife of actor Lester Crawford (they appear together in the 1931 7-minute comedy short The Spirits of 76th Street), she was the mother of Academy Award-winning actor Broderick Crawford.
Selected filmography
- The Spirits of 76th Street (1931)
- Top Hat (1935)
- Swing Time (1936)
- Love on a Bet (1936)
- Murder on a Bridle Path (1936)
- She's Got Everything (1937)
- Service de Luxe (1938)
- Honeymoon in Bali (1939)
- Naughty but Nice (1939)
- Love, Honor and Goodbye (1945)