Menken, Helen

The Oxford Companion to American Theatre | 2004 | 700+ words | Copyright

Menken, Helen (1901–66), actress. Only five years old when she made her debut as a fairy in a 1906 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, the attractive New Yorker continued her career by appearing in contemporary musicals. She then spent several years in stock before playing opposite John Drew in Major Pendennis (1916). Menken first attained major recognition when she played Miss Fairchild in Three Wise Fools (1918), then won further acclaim as the poor waif Diane in Seventh Heaven (1922). Her other memorable performances included the three‐hundred‐year‐old Emilia Marty, who has the formula for eternal youth, in The Makropoulos Secret (1926); the unyielding lesbian Irene De Montcel in The Captive (1926); Dorinda in The Beaux' Stratagem (1928); Queen Elizabeth to the Mary of Helen Hayes in Mary of Scotland (1933); and the spinster Charlotte Lovell in The Old Maid (1935).

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Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Menken, Helen." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 28 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Menken, Helen." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (May 28, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O149-MenkenHelen.html

Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Menken, Helen." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Retrieved May 28, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O149-MenkenHelen.html

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