Barbara Hale
Acting
Born 1922-04-18
Died 2017-01-26
DeKalb, Illinois, USA
91 credits
Primetime Emmy Awards 1
star on Hollywood Walk of Fame 1
Awards
Won 1 Primetime Emmy Award
Primetime Emmy Awards 1 won
- 1959 Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series Won Perry Mason
star on Hollywood Walk of Fame 1 won
- — star on Hollywood Walk of Fame Won
Award data from Wikidata (CC0). Coverage may be incomplete.
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Barbara Hale (April 18, 1922 - January 26, 2017) was an American actress best known for her role as legal secretary Della Street on more than 250 episodes of the long-running Perry Mason television series and in 30 made-for-TV movies.
Hale was born in DeKalb, Illinois, to Luther Ezra Hale, a landscape gardener, and his wife, Wilma Colvin. She is of Scots-Irish ancestry. Hale graduated from high school in Rockford, Illinois, then attended the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, planning to become an artist. Her performing career began in Chicago when she started modeling to pay for her education. She moved to Hollywood in 1943, and made her first screen appearances playing small parts (often uncredited).
Hale was under contract to RKO Radio Pictures through the late 1940s. She appeared in Higher and Higher (1943) with Frank Sinatra; played leading lady to Robert Mitchum in West of the Pecos (1945); enjoyed top billing in both Lady Luck (1946) opposite Robert Young and The Window (1949) with Arthur Kennedy; and co-starred in Jolson Sings Again (1949), with Larry Parks playing Al Jolson and Hale as Jolson's wife, Ellen Clark. She played the top-billed title role in Lorna Doone (1951) and portrayed Julia Hancock in The Far Horizons (1955) with Fred MacMurray and Charlton Heston.
Her flourishing movie career more or less ended when Hale accepted her best known role, Della Street, secretary to attorney Perry Mason, in the TV series with Raymond Burr. The show ran from 1957 to 1966, and she reprised the role in several television movies. Her last performance to date was in 2000 at age 78. In 1967 she guest starred on the ABC series Custer. Hale also had a featured role in the 1970 ensemble film Airport, playing the wife of a jetliner pilot (Dean Martin).
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Filmography
— top 60 of 91
Acting
59 credits
Perry Mason
Adam-12
Climax!
Marcus Welby, M.D.
Dinah!
The Ford Television Theatre
The Millionaire
The Doris Day Show
Studio 57
Screen Director's Playhouse
The Wonderful World of Disney
Airport
Big Wednesday
Letter to Loretta
Perry Mason Returns
The Oklahoman
The Giant Spider Invasion
General Electric Theater
The Far Horizons
The Seventh Victim
The Boy with Green Hair
The Window
Government Girl
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
7th Cavalry
Perry Mason: The Case of the Shooting Star
Perry Mason Returns
Last of the Comanches
The Clay Pigeon
Perry Mason: The Case of the Killer Kiss
The Young Runaways
West of the Pecos
Perry Mason: The Case of the Reckless Romeo
Perry Mason: The Case of the Silenced Singer
Perry Mason: The Case of the Lady in the Lake
Seminole
Perry Mason: The Case of the Grimacing Governor
Lady Luck
A Lion Is in the Streets
Perry Mason: The Case of the All-Star Assassin
Lorna Doone
Perry Mason: The Case of the Glass Coffin
The Iron Major
The Jackpot
Perry Mason: The Case of the Fatal Fashion
Perry Mason: The Case of the Lethal Lesson
Perry Mason: The Case of the Ruthless Reporter
The Lone Hand
Perry Mason: The Case of the Desperate Deception
Perry Mason: The Case of the Musical Murder
Buckskin
The Falcon in Hollywood
Perry Mason: The Case of the Skin-Deep Scandal
Perry Mason: The Case of the Lethal Lifestyle
Perry Mason: The Case of the Lost Love
Higher and Higher
Perry Mason: The Case of the Fatal Framing
A Likely Story
Perry Mason: The Case of the Avenging Ace
Other credits
1 credit
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