Helen Gahagan Biography

Brooklyn-born actress Helen Gahagan had an interesting life. She attended Barnard College and then went on to have a successful stage career, eventually abandoning the stage to study opera in Europe. Following her return to the state, she and Melvyn Douglas married in 1931, and she bore him three children. In 1935, she was cast as the immortal love-hungry beauty in the lavish 1935 version of the adventure-fantasy She. It was her first and last screen role. Her life took a different turn in 1944, when she successfully ran for Congress on the liberal ticket. She went on to win the next two terms and then decided to run for the Senate. Unfortunately, Gahagan was beaten by Richard Nixon. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi