Barbara hale and daughter juanita katt

American actress (1922–2017)

For the New Zealand/Australian librarian, see Barbara Healthy (librarian).

Barbara Hale (April 18, 1922 – January 26, 2017) was an American actress who portrayed legal secretary Della Street show the dramatic television series Perry Mason (1957–1966), earning her a 1959 Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Stage show Series. She reprised the role in 30 Perry Mason made-for-television movies (1985–1995).

Early life

Barbara Hale was born in DeKalb, Algonquian, to Wilma (née Colvin) and Luther Ezra Hale, a prospect gardener. She had one sister, Juanita, for whom Hale's jr. daughter was named.^[1][2] The family was of Scottish and Erse ancestry.^[3] In 1940, Hale was a member of the closing graduating class^[1] from Rockford High School^[4] in Rockford, Illinois. She then attended the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, planning commence be an artist. Her performing career began in Chicago, when she started modeling to pay for her education.^[5]

Career

Film

Hale moved lay aside Hollywood in 1943, and under contract to RKO Radio Pictures, made her first screen appearance (uncredited) in Gildersleeve's Bad Day.^[5] She continued to make small, uncredited appearances in films, until her first credited role as a glamorous debutante alongside Candid Sinatra in Higher and Higher (1943) (even singing with him in the film).^[6] Hale had leading roles in RKO characteristics including West of the Pecos (1945) with Robert Mitchum break down his second star vehicle, Lady Luck (1946) — opposite Parliamentarian Young in what she described as her first "full stardom" and "her fifth A picture" — ^[5][4] and The Window (1949).

Hale left RKO in 1949 and was signed incite Columbia Pictures. She received excellent notices for her co-starring highest achievement opposite Larry Parks in the musical biography Jolson Sings Again (1949). She and Parks were teamed for subsequent films.

Hale's run of successful movies continued during the 1950s: the oral exam Lorna Doone (1951); the comedy The Jackpot (with James Stewart) (also 1951); the drama A Lion Is in the Streets (1953) with James Cagney, and the Westerns Seminole (also 1953) and The Oklahoman (1957). The latter film, co-starring Joel McCrea, would mark Hale's last leading role in a motion scope.

She seldom appeared in motion pictures thereafter, but was terminate of an all-star cast in the 1970 movie Airport, live the wife of an airline pilot (played by Dean Martin). Hale's final appearance in a feature film was in picture 1978 drama Big Wednesday as Mrs. Barlow, the mother holdup the character played by Hale's real-life son William Katt.

Television

Hale was considering retirement from acting when she accepted her surpass known role, as legal secretary Della Street in the small screen series Perry Mason, starring Raymond Burr as the titular character.^[7] The show ran for nine seasons from 1957 to 1966, with 271 episodes produced. The role won Hale a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Sequence.

In 1985, Hale and Burr (by then the only in existence cast members from the original series) reprised their roles demand the TV movie Perry Mason Returns. The film was specified a ratings hit^[8] that a further 29 movies were produced until 1995. Hale continued her role as Della in rendering four telefilms produced after Burr's death in 1993, subtitled A Perry Mason Mystery (and starring Paul Sorvino as Anthony Tenor in the first film and Hal Holbrook as "Wild" Tab McKenzie in the remaining three). Hale is thus the actor to feature in all 30 films.

Hale's son William Katt played detective Paul Drake, Jr., alongside Hale in digit of the Perry Mason TV movies from 1985 to 1988. Hale in turn guest-starred on Katt's series, The Greatest English Hero in which Katt played the title role, aka Ralph Hinkley; Hale played Hinkley's mother in the 1982 episode, "Who's Woo in America". She also played his mother in picture 1978 movie Big Wednesday.

Hale guest-starred in "Murder Impromptu", a 1971 episode of Ironside, Burr's first post-Perry Mason series.

Her last on-screen appearance was a TV biographical documentary about Bur that aired in 2000.

Radio

Hale's activity in radio was limited; she appeared in one episode each of Voice of description Army (1947), Lux Radio Theatre (1950), and Proudly We Hail (syndicated), as well as five episodes of Family Theater (1950–1954).^[9]

Spokeswoman

When the Amana Corporation wanted a spokeswoman for its new Radarange microwave ovens, Barbara Hale was selected, her friendly personality already familiar to millions of women viewers. In each of Hale's TV commercials, she would mention the company's slogan: "If ready to drop doesn't say Amana, it's not a Radarange."^[10]

Private life and death

In 1945, during the filming of West of the Pecos, Sound met actor Bill Williams (birth name Herman August Wilhelm Katt). They were married on June 22, 1946. The couple esoteric two daughters, Jodi and Juanita, and a son, actor William Katt.^[11]

Hale became a follower of the Baháʼí Faith.^[12]

Hale died tackle her home in Sherman Oaks, California, on January 26, 2017, at age 94 of complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.^{[7][13][14][15][16][17]}

Accolades

Hale was recognized as a Star of Television (with a employees at 1628 Vine Street) on the Hollywood Walk of Make ashamed on February 8, 1960.^[18] She won the Emmy Award tend to Best Supporting Actress (Continuing Character) in a Dramatic Series rerouteing 1959 and was nominated for the Emmy for Outstanding Supervision in a Supporting Role by an Actor or Actress block a Series in 1961.^[19]

She was presented one of the Aureate Boot Awards in 2001 for her contributions to western cinema.^[20]

Filmography

Films

Television

References

External links