Westley, Helen

(1879-1942)

   Born in Brooklyn, New York, Helen Westley went on the stage in 1897, working in stock for several years before becoming one of the founders of the Washington Square Players, acting in their productions of The Age of Reason (1915), The Seagull (1916), Literature (1916), The Life ofMan (1917), and Youth (1918). After a long run in Leo Tolstoy's Redemption (1918), Westley became one of the founding members of the Theatre Guild in 1919. A versatile character actress of formidable presence, Westley appeared in many of the Guild's most prestigious offerings, including their second production, St. John Ervine's John Ferguson (1919). For the Guild, she appeared in a series of George Bernard Shaw's plays, Heartbreak House (1920), Caesar and Cleopatra (1925), Pygmalion (1926), The Doctor's Dilemma (1927), Major Barbara (1928), and Getting Married (1931), and in two Eugene O'Neill dramas, the Pulitzer PRizE-winning Strange Interlude (1928) and Dynamo (1929). Her other important Guild appearances included He Who Gets Slapped (1922), From Morn to Midnight (1922), R.U.R. (1922), The Adding Machine (1923), The Guardsman (1924), Reunion in Vienna* (1931), Green Grow the Lilacs* (1931), and They Shall Not Die* (1934). Westley acted in nearly 40 motion pictures, most memorably Roberta (1935), Show Boat (1936), and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938).