Helena Pickard

Helena Pickard (13 October 1900 – 27 September 1959) was a British actress who worked across stage, film, and television. Born in Sheffield, England, she built a career as a character actress on both sides of the Atlantic, appearing in West End productions and on Broadway between 1936 and 1942.

Pickard's stage work included prominent roles in West End plays such as When We Are Married and Flare Path, the latter also among her Broadway credits alongside Time and the Conways and the comedy The Country Wife. Her screen career began with the 1924 silent film The Clicking of Cuthbert, and she took the female lead in the 1931 comedy Splinters in the Navy, though the majority of her film appearances were in supporting roles. During her time working in the United States she appeared in two Hollywood productions before returning to Britain.

In the later years of her career, Pickard appeared on television in series including The Four Just Men, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and Vanity Fair, and contributed to the BBC radio series Saturday Night Theatre.

Her brother was Group Captain Percy Charles Pickard of the RAF, who was killed on 18 February 1944 while leading the air raid on Amiens Prison during Operation Jericho. Pickard was married to actor Cedric Hardwicke, with whom she had a son, Edward Hardwicke, who also pursued an acting career. Following her divorce from Hardwicke, she married financier Herbert Rothbarth. She died on 27 September 1959 from an overdose of sleeping pills, and her remains were handled at Golders Green Crematorium.