---
name: "Helen Vinson"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/helen-vinson"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "17 September 1907"
died: "7 October 1999"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
average_as: "actor"
average_over: 1
updated: "2026-09-19T22:09:52.601068+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 Vinson

Actor. Born 17 September 1907 in Beaumont, Texas, USA. Died 7 October 1999.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 17 September 1907, Beaumont, Texas, USA
- **Died:** 7 October 1999
- **Also known as:** Helen Rulfs
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Vinson, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q531336, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0899091/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/99349

## Fi1m on Helen Vinson

> Helen Vinson was the well-bred blonde the hero should not have wanted: the selfish wife, the treacherous friend, the other woman in forty-odd films. She played them with enough intelligence that audiences sometimes sided with her, and the studios never let her be anything else.

Helen Vinson was tall, fair and composed, and Hollywood looked at her once and decided what she was for. From her first film, *Jewel Robbery* (1932), opposite William Powell and Kay Francis, she was the elegant woman at the edge of somebody else's romance. Over roughly forty films between 1932 and 1945 she played the cool blonde with a busy private life, the selfish wife, the friend who could not be trusted with a secret. Warner Bros had brought her west from Broadway, where she had worked since 1927, and the studio knew exactly which chair to sit her in.

The odd thing is that the one film of hers we have reviewed is the exception. In *I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang* (1932) she is Helen, the woman Paul Muni's fugitive would rather be with, and for once she is on the side of the angels. The part gives her almost nothing. Glenda Farrell, as the landlady who works out who he is, gets the lines and the sneer; Vinson gets a good coat and a kind voice. We found ourselves watching her scenes with a small, growing irritation, not at her but at the script, because Mervyn LeRoy's film is in such a hurry to get back on the road that it never lets its one decent woman say anything worth remembering.

Elsewhere she had more to do. She was the cold upper-crust wife in Frank Capra's *Broadway Bill* (1934), the jealous wife opposite Gary Cooper in *The Wedding Night* (1935), the treacherous friend among Carole Lombard, Kay Francis and Cary Grant in *In Name Only* (1939). Critics at the time noticed that she played these women with a clear head rather than a hiss, and that she could make an audience feel for a character the plot had written off. That is a rarer gift than it sounds. Most actors given the other woman play her as a warning; the record suggests Vinson played her as someone who had made her choices and saw no reason to apologise.

It did not get her the leading parts, and she knew it. She later said she regretted leaving Broadway as early as she did, and by *The Thin Man Goes Home* (1944), one of her last films, she was still a supporting player in somebody else's series. She retired after 1945.

Watch *Fugitive* for Muni, and keep an eye on the edge of the frame, where a good actor stands in a good coat waiting for a line that never comes. Then look for the films where she was allowed to be unkind, which is where she was given something to do.

## Biography

Helen Vinson (born Helen Rulfs) was an American actress who appeared in around 40 films between 1932 and 1945. Born in Beaumont, Texas, on 17 September 1907, she made her screen debut in *Jewel Robbery* (1932) and played Helen in *I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang* (1932).

Her roles frequently cast her as the 'other woman' in pre-Code productions. She appeared in *The Kennel Murder Case* (1933), *In Name Only* (1939), *Beyond Tomorrow* (1940) and *The Thin Man Goes Home* (1944). Vinson received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street. She retired from film after 1945 and died in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on 7 October 1999.

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

## On Fi1m (1)

- *I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang* (1932), Fi1m 85, as Helen — [page](https://film.one/film/i-am-a-fugitive-from-a-chain-gang.md)

## Complete filmography (40)

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

- *The Thin Man Goes Home* (1944), as Helena Draque
- *Are These Our Parents?* (1944), as Myra Salisbury
- *The Lady and the Monster* (1944), as Chloe Donovan
- *Chip Off the Old Block* (1944), as Glory Marlow Jr.
- *Nothing but the Truth* (1941), as Linda Graham
- *Bowery Boy* (1940), as Peggy Winters
- *Torrid Zone* (1940), as Mrs. Gloria Anderson
- *Beyond Tomorrow* (1940), as Arlene Terry
- *Curtain Call* (1940), as Charlotte Morley
- *Enemy Agent* (1940), as Irene Hunter
- *Married and in Love* (1940), as Doris Wilding
- *In Name Only* (1939), as Suzanne
- *Live, Love and Learn* (1937), as Lily Chalmers
- *Walter Wanger's Vogues of 1938* (1937), as Mary Curson
- *Love in Exile* (1936), as Countess Xandra St. Aurion
- *Reunion* (1936), as Gloria Sheridan
- *King of the Damned* (1935), as Anna Fernandez
- *The Tunnel* (1935), as Varlia Lloyd
- *Age of Indiscretion* (1935), as Eve Lenhart
- *Private Worlds* (1935), as Claire Monet
- *The Wedding Night* (1935), as Dora Barrett
- *A Notorious Gentleman* (1935), as Nina Thorne
- *Broadway Bill* (1934), as Margaret
- *The Captain Hates the Sea* (1934), as Janet Grayson
- *Gift of Gab* (1934), as Nurse
- *Let's Try Again* (1934), as Ann
- *The Life of Vergie Winters* (1934), as Laura Shadwell
- *As Husbands Go* (1934), as Lucille Lingard
- *The Kennel Murder Case* (1933), as Doris Delafield
- *The Power and the Glory* (1933), as Eve Borden
- *Midnight Club* (1933), as Iris Whitney
- *The Little Giant* (1933), as Polly Cass
- *Grand Slam* (1933), as Lola Starr
- *Second Hand Wife* (1933), as Betty Cavendish
- *Lawyer Man* (1932), as Barbara "Babs" Bentley
- *I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang* (1932), as Helen — Fi1m 85, [page](https://film.one/film/i-am-a-fugitive-from-a-chain-gang.md)
- *They Call It Sin* (1932), as Enid Hollister
- *The Crash* (1932), as Esther Parrish
- *Two Against the World* (1932), as Corinne Walton
- *Jewel Robbery* (1932), as Marianne Horn

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© 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-vinson