- Born
- Died
- Birth nameHelen Louise Chandler
- Height5′ 3″ (1.60 m)
- Helen Chandler was born in Charleston, South Carolina on February 1, 1906. By the late 1920s she had become a hugely popular actress on the New York stage. That Hollywood should beckon was inevitable, but unfortunately whatever quality made Chandler a success on the stage did not survive the transition to film. Chandler is probably best remembered by movie fans as the fragile Mina, pursued and nearly victimized by Bela Lugosi in the original Dracula (1931). In 1937 Chandler left Hollywood to return to the stage, but a dependency on alcohol and sleeping pills haunted her subsequent career, and in 1940 she was committed to a sanitarium. Ten years later she was disfigured in a fire, apparently caused by smoking in bed. Helen Chandler died (following surgery for a bleeding ulcer) on April 30, 1965. Her body was cremated, however, as no relative ever came forward to claim the remains, her ashes reposed in the vault (off limits to visitors) of the Chapel of the Pines Crematory in Los Angeles. After an online fundraising effort led by Hollywood Graveyard YouTube channel creator Arthur Dark, Chandler's ashes were reinurned in the Cathedral Mausoleum of Hollywood Forever Cemetery on July 13, 2023.
- IMDb mini biography by: Peter W. Many, Jr.
- SpousesWalter Piascik(February 3, 1943 - April 30, 1965) (her death)Bramwell Fletcher(February 14, 1935 - April 1940) (divorced)Cyril Hume(February 3, 1930 - 1934) (divorced)
- Her third husband was merchant seaman Walter Piascik whom she meet in a bar. Walter was described as a "big, dumb man who didn't talk too much." He largely said three words in a conversation. Walter was said to have other skills to match his size and strength, and these were factors for Helen. The union did not last as Walter shipped out to sea and was never seen again.
- According to various Hollywood actors, Helen Chandler lived her life enveloped by her own delusions of grandeur. The actress was convinced she was going to be the next Lillian Gish, which never happened. Chandler had long been forgotten when she died in 1965.
- During the early 1930s, she and Cyril Hume lived in the "French Pavilion" house of the French Village housing development in Hollywood, off Highland Avenue, just below Whitley Heights across the street from the Hollywood Bowl. The unique set of homes, Walter S. and F. Pierpont Davis, were razed in 1952 to make way for the Hollywood Freeway.
- After performing on the stage, the actress tried her luck in Hollywood, however her efforts to gain success in films were mostly met with failure.
- Following her death, she was cremated and per her wishes, her ashes were placed in vaultage at the Chapel of the Pines in Los Angeles, California. On an interesting note, her cremated remains sat in vaultage at the Chapel of the Pines in Los Angeles, California, after no relatives or friends came forward to collect her cremated remains for over fifty-eight years. In 2023, Arthur Dark, a YouTuber and channel creator of the popular Hollywood Graveyard started an online GoFundMe fundraising effort to have her cremated remains brought out of vaultage for inurnment in the Cathedral Mausoleum at the famous Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California. The fundraiser was a success and her cremated remains were inurned in a beautiful see-through fronted glass niche in the Cathedral Mausoleum on July 13, 2023.
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