Barbara Hale
| Barbara Hale | |
|---|---|
Barbara Hale in Jolson Sings Again, 1949.
|
|
| Born |
April 18, 1922 DeKalb, Illinois |
| Died | January 26, 2017 (aged 94) Sherman Oaks, California |
| Cause of death | Complications from COPD |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1943–2000 |
| Known for | Perry Mason |
| Spouse(s) |
Bill Williams (married 1946–1992; his death) |
| Children | Jodi Katt (b. 1947) William Katt (b. 1951) Juanita Katt (b. 1953) |
Barbara Hale (April 18, 1922 – January 26, 2017) was an American actress best known for her role as legal secretary Della Street on more than 270 episodes of the long-running Perry Mason television series. She reprised the role in 30 Perry Mason movies for television.
Barbara Hale was born in DeKalb, Illinois, a daughter Luther Ezra Hale, a landscape gardener, and his wife Wilma Colvin. She had one sister, Juanita, whom Hale's younger daughter was named for. The family was of Scots-Irish ancestry. In 1940, Hale graduated from Rockford High School in Rockford, Illinois, then attended the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, planning to become an artist. Her performing career began in Chicago, when she started modeling to pay for her education.
Hale moved to Hollywood in 1943, and made her first screen appearances playing small parts (often uncredited). Her first role was in Gildersleeve's Bad Day. She was under contract to RKO Radio Pictures through the late 1940s. She appeared in Higher and Higher (1943) with Frank Sinatra and sang with the crooner; played leading lady to Robert Mitchum in West of the Pecos (1945); enjoyed top billing in both Lady Luck (1946) opposite Robert Young, her first "full stardom" and "her fifth A picture", and The Window (1949) with Arthur Kennedy, and co-starred in Jolson Sings Again (1949), with Larry Parks playing Al Jolson and Hale as Jolson's wife, Ellen Clark.
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