Percy Helton


Percy Alfred Helton was an American stage, film, and television actor. He was one of the most familiar faces and voices in Hollywood of the 1950s.

Career

A native of the Manhattan borough in New York City, Helton began acting at the age of two, appearing in vaudeville acts with his British-born father, Alfred "Alf" Helton. He was a cast member in the Broadway production of Julie BonBon. Helton went on to perform in stock theater and in other Broadway plays.
Helton joined the United States Army in World War I. Deployed to Europe with the American Expeditionary Forces, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his duty with the 77th Infantry Division's 305th Field Artillery.
Helton returned to acting and singing professionally after his discharge from the army. However, in one of his subsequent stage roles he was required to shout and scream his lines during much of the play. The resulting stress and damage to his vocal chords after repeated performances left him permanently hoarse, with a raspy falsetto voice and a breathy delivery. That change in his voice altered Helton's career. He remained in acting but chiefly as a character actor in a wide range of films and television programs in the 1950s and 1960s. Among those programs were three guest appearances on Perry Mason, including the role of Asa Cooperman in the 1961 episode "The Case of the Pathetic Patient", as a pawn broker in the 1961 episode "The Case of the Torrid Tapestry." and as a hotel clerk in the 1965 episode "The Case of the Careless Kitten." Some examples of the films in which he performed include Miracle on 34th Street, Criss Cross, The Set-Up, Kiss Me Deadly, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. He is a particular favorite of film noir fans, having co-starred in several classics of the genre. It was his performance in one of those films, Wicked Woman, where Helton reached perhaps the apex of his career in his characterization of "Charlie Borg." In that role he portrayed a foolish neighbor who gets lured to his possible doom by a devious waitress played by Beverly Michaels.
In 1955, Helton was cast as Alex Grant, who is arrested for a 15-year-old murder when he returns to a mining camp, in the episode, "The Hangman Waits" of the western anthology series, Death Valley Days, hosted by Stanley Andrews. Things look bleak for Grant until his youthful lawyer, Greg Lewis, locates a corroborating witness, 75-year-old Harry Gander, whose personal diary clears the suspect. James Seay played corrupt district attorney Lucius Peck.

Personal life and death

Percy Helton married actress Edna Helton on October 24, 1931 and was married to her until his death. They had no children.
He died at age 77 at the Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center on September 11, 1971, the year of his final film appearance. His ashes are inurned at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park and Mortuary in Los Angeles, California.

Partial filmography