---
name: "Helen Broderick"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/helen-broderick"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "11 August 1891"
died: "25 September 1959"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
average_as: "actor"
average_over: 1
updated: "2026-09-19T23:05:11.132678+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Helen Broderick

Actor. Born 11 August 1891 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Died 25 September 1959.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 11 August 1891, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
- **Died:** 25 September 1959
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Broderick, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3129601, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0110813/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/30185

## Biography

Helen Broderick (11 August 1891 – 25 September 1959) was an American actress known for her comic character roles in stage productions and films. She began her career as a chorus girl in the first Ziegfeld Follies in 1907 and went on to appear in vaudeville with her husband, Lester Crawford, before achieving success on Broadway in revues and musicals including *Fifty Million Frenchmen* (1929), *The Band Wagon* (1931) and *As Thousands Cheer* (1933).

She moved to Hollywood in the early 1930s and became a familiar presence in supporting roles, notably as Madge Hardwick in *Top Hat* (1935) and Mabel Anderson in *Swing Time* (1936), both starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Other film credits include *The Rage of Paris* (1938), *No, No, Nanette* (1940) and *Stage Door Canteen* (1943). She retired from the screen in 1946. Broderick was the mother of actor Broderick Crawford.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *Top Hat* (1935), Fi1m 87, as Madge Hardwick — [page](https://film.one/film/top-hat.md)

## Complete filmography (31)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Because of Him* (1946), as Nora
- *Love, Honor and Goodbye* (1945), as Mary Riley
- *3 Is a Family* (1944), as Irma
- *Her Primitive Man* (1944), as Mrs. Winthrop
- *Chip Off the Old Block* (1944), as Glory Marlow Sr.
- *Stage Door Canteen* (1943), as Helen Broderick
- *Father Takes a Wife* (1941), as Aunt Julie
- *Nice Girl?* (1941), as Cora Foster
- *Virginia* (1941), as Theo Clairmont
- *No, No, Nanette* (1940), as Mrs. Susan Smith
- *The Captain is a Lady* (1940), as Nancy Crocker
- *Honeymoon in Bali* (1939), as Lorna Smith
- *Naughty but Nice* (1939), as Aunt Martha Hogan
- *Stand Up and Fight* (1939), as Amanda Griffith
- *Service de Luxe* (1938), as Pearl
- *The Road to Reno* (1938), as Aunt Minerva
- *The Rage of Paris* (1938), as Gloria Patterson
- *Radio City Revels* (1938), as Gertie
- *She's Got Everything* (1937), as Aunt Jane
- *The Life of the Party* (1937), as Pauline
- *Meet the Missus* (1937), as Emma Foster
- *We're on the Jury* (1937), as Agnes Dean
- *Smartest Girl in Town* (1936), as Gwen
- *Swing Time* (1936), as Mabel Anderson
- *The Bride Walks Out* (1936), as Mattie Dodson
- *Murder on a Bridle Path* (1936), as Hildegarde Withers
- *Love on a Bet* (1936), as Aunt Charlotte
- *To Beat the Band* (1935), as Mrs. Freeda McCrary
- *Top Hat* (1935), as Madge Hardwick — Fi1m 87, [page](https://film.one/film/top-hat.md)
- *50 Million Frenchmen* (1931), as Violet
- *The Mystery Club* (1926), Scenario Writer

## Gallery

- ![Trailer screenshot of Helen Broderick in Top Hat (1935)](https://film.one/media/person/1228634/gallery-5bd19aac72e3.jpg) Trailer screenshot of Helen Broderick in Top Hat (1935) — Trailer screenshot (RKO Radio Pictures), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/Helen_Broderick_Top_Hat_trailer.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Helen Broderick](https://film.one/media/person/1228634/gallery-e330783afeae.jpg) Helen Broderick — Universal Pictures, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/The_Rage_of_Paris_3_%28cropped%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/helen-broderick