Helen Holmes

Helen Holmes (June 19, 1892 – July 8, 1950) was an American actress, silent film producer, director, screenwriter, and stuntwoman whose Broadway career spanned from 1909 to 1935. Born in Illinois, Holmes stated in an interview that she was born on a farm in South Bend, Indiana, though a 1917 article claimed she was born aboard her father's private railroad car, "Estevan." She grew up in Chicago, Illinois, and received her education at St. Mary's Convent in South Bend, Indiana.

Holmes was the daughter of Louis A. Holmes, a Norwegian immigrant born in October 1862 who had come to the United States in 1867 and worked as a railroad clerk for the Illinois Central Railroad, and his wife Sophia, born in Indiana in April 1869. She had a brother, Frank O. Holmes, born in June 1889, and a sister, Florence, born in May 1896, as well as two other siblings who died in infancy. Holmes began her professional life as a photographer's model before transitioning to acting, first in live theatre and then making her Broadway debut in 1909. Her stage credits included This Our House, The Love Expert, Adam's Apple, Dorian Gray, and The Devil Within.

Around 1910, tuberculosis in the family prompted Holmes, her widowed mother, and her siblings to relocate to California Valley, a few miles east of Shoshone in Death Valley, California, where the family lost their savings in a real estate swindle involving property near the Colorado River. Holmes had become friends with film star Mabel Normand, who moved to Hollywood in 1912 to work at Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios. Following the death of her brother, Normand encouraged Holmes to pursue work in the film industry on the West Coast.

Holmes entered the film business in 1912 through a bit part at Keystone Studios arranged by Normand. After limited appearances there, she signed with the Kalem Company's new Hollywood studio in late 1913, where her first film was directed by J.P. McGowan, whom she would later marry. During her first two years at Kalem, Holmes appeared in more than thirty short films, and her capacity for physically demanding stunts led to her most significant early opportunity. In November 1914, following the box-office success of Pathé Frères' The Perils of Pauline starring Pearl White, Kalem released its own adventure serial, The Hazards of Helen, with Holmes as the lead. Over twenty-six episodes, she performed nearly all of her own stunts, portraying a resourceful heroine who leapt onto runaway trains and pursued villainous train robbers, frequently resolving her own predicaments without assistance.

The success of The Hazards of Helen established Holmes as a major star. She and McGowan subsequently left Kalem to work with Thomas H. Ince Productions and Universal Pictures before forming Signal Film Productions to produce their own adventure films. Between late 1915 and early 1917, they completed approximately a dozen films together, though financial and distribution difficulties eventually ended the partnership. Holmes did not appear in another film until 1919, when she starred in a production for another company. In 1920 she produced the Warner Brothers serial The Tiger Band. Between 1924 and 1926 she made eighteen additional short adventure films, including several Westerns opposite actor and rodeo performer Jack Hoxie, though her popularity declined as the market for female cliffhanger films became oversaturated.

Throughout her film career Holmes periodically returned to the stage, and following the end of her marriage in 1925 she went back to Broadway, making her final stage appearance in 1935. She later married film stuntman Lloyd A. Saunders, and the two began training animals for use in motion pictures, a venture connected to the popularity of the Rin Tin Tin films. After retiring from the film industry, Holmes operated a small antique business from her home in San Fernando and maintained an extensive collection of rare dolls. Lloyd Saunders died in 1946. Holmes died on July 8, 1950, from heart failure at her home at 1401 West Olive Street in Burbank, California, having suffered from a heart condition for five years. She was 58 years old. Funeral services were held at Pierce Brothers Hollywood Chapel in Los Angeles, and she was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.