Helen Gahagan
| Helen Gahagan Douglas | |
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| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California's 14th district |
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In office January 3, 1945 – January 3, 1951 |
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| Preceded by | Thomas Ford |
| Succeeded by | Sam Yorty |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Helen Gahagan November 25, 1900 Boonton, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Died | June 28, 1980 (aged 79) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Melvyn Douglas (1931–1980) |
| Children | Mary Helen Peter Gahagan |
| Alma mater | Columbia University |
Helen Gahagan Douglas (November 25, 1900 – June 28, 1980) was an American actress and politician. She was the third woman and first Democratic woman elected to Congress from California; her election made California one of the first two states (along with Illinois) to elect female members to the House from both parties.
Gahagan was born in Boonton, New Jersey, of Scotch-Irish descent. She was the eldest daughter of Lillian Rose (Mussen) and Walter H. Gahagan, an engineer who owned a construction business in Brooklyn and a shipyard in Arverne, Queens; her mother had been a schoolteacher. She was reared Episcopalian. Gahagan was raised at 231 Lincoln Place in the Park Slope area of Brooklyn, an upper-middle class neighborhood, and graduated from the prestigious Berkeley School for Girls. Following an argument with her father, who did not believe becoming an actress was a suitable future for a woman, Gahagan was sent to study at the Capen School for Girls in Northampton, Massachusetts.
She gained admittance to Barnard College, though to the dismay of her father, Gahagan left after two years without finishing her degree to pursue a career as an actress. Gahagan found great success and became a well-known star on Broadway in the 1920s, appearing in popular plays such as "Young Woodley" and "Trelawney of the Wells".
In 1927, at the age of 26, Gahagan set out to forge a new career as an opera singer, and after two years of voice lessons, found herself touring across Europe, and receiving critical praise, unusual for an American at the time.
In 1930, Gahagan returned to Broadway to star in a production of Tonight or Never, where she co-starred with actor Melvyn Douglas. The two married in 1931, Gahagan keeping her maiden name.
Gahagan Douglas went to Los Angeles in 1935, starring in the Hollywood movie, She, playing Hash-a-Motep, queen of a lost city. The movie, based on H. Rider Haggard's novel of the same name, is perhaps best known for popularizing a phrase from the novel, "She who must be obeyed." The character and costuming in She served as the inspiration for the appearance of the Evil Queen in Walt Disney's 1937 animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
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