It was cut short in a way by her favorite drink, vodka. The actress who referred to herself as a “reactress” to some of Hollywood’s leading comic actors, Helen Walker, graced comedies and dramas in the 1940s and 50s.
She supposedly introduced fellow Paramount starlet, Gail Russell, to the joys of vodka as a tranquilizer. And although Russell’s career suffered because of alcoholism, vodka was only an indirect cause of Walker’s career problem.
She was driving drunk one night and picked up some hitchhikers. She got into an accident. One man was killed, and three others and Walker were seriously injured. She was charged with manslaughter.
Although the charges were dropped, there was a civil suit, and much negative publicity (it was during World War II and the hitchhikers were young soldiers). Her career survived but never quite recovered its momentum.
Still, over a 10 year period, she appeared in some damn good films. She is in 1947’s classic noir with Tyrone Power, Nightmare Alley. And there’s the solid thriller, Call Northside 777. There she is opposite Charles Coburn (below) in 1949’s Impact.
And, inevitably, Walker appeared in perhaps more than her share of potboilers (see below).
She went through two marriages and was washed up in movies by the mid-Fifties, and struggled financially after that. She died of cancer in 1968. She was just 47.
HELEN WALKER’s short career unfortunately didn’t get much COMMENT here…
Apparently Walker had just finished making NIGHTMARE ALLEY, and on December 31, 1946, while driving the car of director Bruce “Lucky” Humberstone from Palm Springs to Hollywood, she gave a ride to three hitchhiking soldiers named Robert E. Lee, Philip Mercado, and Joseph Montaldo. Near Redlands, California, the car hit a divider and flipped over, killing Lee and causing serious injuries to Walker and the other two passengers. She was charged with drunk driving and reckless driving, and Mercado brought a civil suit for $150,000 against her.
But here’s what’s odd… Her criminal trial ended in dismissal?
Drunk driving, causes a fatal accident that kills one soldier, and seriously injuries two others and it’s dismissed???
Well, the public and HOLLYWOOD didn’t agree that’s for sure.
But Helen herself never recovered either, racked with guilt and repentance no doubt.
And strangely enough, a few years later in 1949’s film noir IMPACT, Helen’s character sets up to murder her husband with the help of her lover in a staged car accident.
Alcohol has claimed so many lives, but it’s always more displeasing when it’s someone talented and known to the public as HELEN WALKER was!
Her last feature film was 1955’s “The Big Combo,” recently released on Blu-Ray after years of public domain DVD’s. Make sure you listen to Eddie Muller’s always-fascinating commentary.