Helena Pickard

Helena Pickard
Born	(1900-10-13)13 October 1900 Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
Died	Oxfordshire, England
Other names	Helena Marie Pickard
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1924 - 1959 (film)

Helena Pickard (13 October 1900 – 27 September 1959) was a British stage, film and television actress. Pickard was a prominent character actress in West End plays such as When We Are Married and Flare Path and also appeared on Broadway. She made her screen debut in the 1924 silent film The Clicking of Cuthbert. She played the female lead in the 1931 comedy Splinters in the Navy but mostly appeared in supporting roles. While working in the United States she appeared in two Hollywood productions before returning to Britain. During her later career she appeared occasionally on television in series including The Four Just Men, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Vanity Fair, and in the BBC radio series Saturday Night Theatre.

Personal life

Pickard was the sister of the RAF officer Percy Charles Pickard, a bomber pilot who was killed in action during the Second World War. She was married to the celebrated actor Cedric Hardwicke, with whom she had a son Edward Hardwicke who also became an actor. Later, after divorcing Hardwicke, she married the financier Herbert Rothbarth. She committed suicide in 1959 by overdosing on sleeping pills.

Selected filmography

• The Clicking of Cuthbert (1924)
• Splinters in the Navy (1931)
• Nell Gwyn (1934)
• Limelight (1936)
• Saloon Bar (1940)
• Let George Do It! (1940)
• Forever and a Day (1943)
• The Lodger (1944)
• The Turners of Prospect Road (1947)
• The Lady with a Lamp (1951)

Bibliography

• Rubinstein, William D. The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History. Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

External links

• Helena Pickard at the Internet Movie Database