Helen Vinson

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Actress Born Helen Rulfs on Sept. 17, 1907 in Beaumont, Texas

Helen Vinson made her Broadway debut in a minor role in the play "Los Angeles," and gained more acclaim on Broadway in "Berlin" and "The Fatal Alibi," a detective drama with Charles Laughton.

Vinson was one of the East's popular stage actresses before Warner Bros. talent scouts discovered and ushered her to Hollywood.

Years later, she would lament her early jump to Hollywood, saying "If I'd stayed in New York longer, I'd be getting a much higher salary here now."

Born in Beaumont, Texas, the svelte beauty typically played the "other woman" with an aloof, self-absorbed and elegant edge. Her movies included "Jewel Robbery," "They Call It Sin" and "I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang."

After Vinson married Fred Perry, a British Wimbledon tennis champ, the couple moved to England. They moved to Los Angeles a few years later so she could find more acting roles. Perry also hoped to parlay his tennis acclaim into a movie career.

In 1940, after five years of marriage, Perry and Vinson divorced. Vinson gave up her acting career after marrying her third husband, stockbroker Donald Hardenbrook.

— Shan Li for the Los Angeles Times June 18, 2010