Helen Hanft

✎ About Helen Hanft

Who is it?: Actress

Birth Place: The Bronx, New York City, New York, United States

Occupation: Actress

Years active: 1960–2013

Helen Hanft

Helen Hanft was born on April 04, 1934 in The Bronx, New York City, New York, United States, is Actress. Helen Hanft was born in The Bronx in New York City in 1934. She began her career on the stage in the late 1950's in theatre productions after studying drama at The Performing Arts High School. She transferred to Off-Off-Broadway productions, starring in a series of plays written by Tom Eyen. One of the plays was to make Hanft a star of both Off-Off-Broadway and the avant-garde underground, bringing her a cult following in the years to come. This was the groundbreaking "Why Hanna's Skirt Won't Stay Down" in which she portrayed Hanna O'Brien, a cinema ticket kiosk employee who spent her nights standing over a breezehole in Coney Island for sexual thrills. She is well-documented in many books and writings for having made theatre history with her performances and being at the center of such renowned companies as Theatre of The Eye and an integral part of the La Mama E.T.C. and Caffe Cino families. She continued to appear in plays for both Tom Eyen and other various New York playwrights throughout the 1960's and 1970's but later went on to develop a considerable film career. She still frequents the New York stage in mostly Off-Broadway productions there playing everything from distressed mothers to eccentric dying matriarchs to monstrously wicked society women. Occasionally Hanft appears in such popular television fare as Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001). She is perhaps best known for her roles in Used People (1992) as the ever-endearing "Aunt Ruthie" (opposite Shirley MacLaine) and as the almost villainous Department of Motor Vehicles employee, "Miss Hellberg" (originally the character was named "Miss Heilman" in the script), in License to Drive (1988) (opposite former teen heartthrob Corey Haim). Hanft also left indelible marks in such films as Stardust Memories (1980), (directed by Woody Allen), Honky Tonk Freeway (1981) (directed by the late John Schlesinger), Arthur (1981), (opposite Dudley Moore), and Moonstruck (1987), (opposite Cher) as the liquor store owner, Lotte. A marvelous actress of many facets and great depth, Hanft still delights and thrills audiences today with her film and stage characterizations.
Helen Hanft is a member of Actress

Does Helen Hanft Dead or Alive?

As per our current Database, Helen Hanft has been died on May 30, 2013(2013-05-30) (aged 79)\nNew York, New York, U.S..

🎂 Helen Hanft - Age, Bio, Faces and Birthday

When Helen Hanft die, Helen Hanft was 79 years old.

Popular As	Helen Hanft
Occupation	Actress
Age	79 years old
Zodiac Sign	Taurus
Born	April 04, 1934 ( The Bronx, New York City, New York, United States)
Birthday	April 04
Town/City	The Bronx, New York City, New York, United States
Nationality	United States

🌙 Zodiac

Helen Hanft’s zodiac sign is Taurus. According to astrologers, Taurus is practical and well-grounded, the sign harvests the fruits of labor. They feel the need to always be surrounded by love and beauty, turned to the material world, hedonism, and physical pleasures. People born with their Sun in Taurus are sensual and tactile, considering touch and taste the most important of all senses. Stable and conservative, this is one of the most reliable signs of the zodiac, ready to endure and stick to their choices until they reach the point of personal satisfaction.

🌙 Chinese Zodiac Signs

Helen Hanft was born in the Year of the Dog. Those born under the Chinese Zodiac sign of the Dog are loyal, faithful, honest, distrustful, often guilty of telling white lies, temperamental, prone to mood swings, dogmatic, and sensitive. Dogs excel in business but have trouble finding mates. Compatible with Tiger or Horse.

Some Helen Hanft images

Biography/Timeline

1960

Hanft started her theatrical career in the early 1960s during the Golden Age of experimental theater at such venues as La MaMa E.T.C. and Caffe Cino, and in a few years she became known as "the Ethel Merman of off-off Broadway" for her comedic talent. She often played eccentric, flamboyant, raunchy characters in many successful plays like Tom Eyen's Why Hanna's Skirt Won't Stay Down, The White Whore and the Bit Player (she also appeared in the Cannon Films version of the play), Areatha in the Ice Palace, My Next Husband Will Be a Beauty, Give My Regards to Off Off Broadway, Women Behind Bars, Italian American Reconciliation, and The Neon Woman (the last co-starring Divine). She had great success in the David Rabe play In the Boom Boom Room at Joseph Papp's Public Theater. She appeared in many Off-Off Broadway plays by Tom Eyen. and Stephen Holt. She appeared in "The Dirty Little Girl with the Paper Flower in Her Hair Is Demented", "Who Killed My Bald Sister Sophie", "Reety in Hell", "The Kitty Glitter Story", "Stoop", "Bambi Levine, Please Shut Up!", and as Judy Garland dying in her bathroom in "London Loo". She appeared as herself in two documentary features, Beautiful Darling about Candy Darlng, and I Am Divine, about the life of the performer Divine.

1970

In the middle 1970s Hanft began appearing in movies, sometimes in cameo roles, including the Woody Allen films Manhattan (1979), Stardust Memories (1980), The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) and Allen's segment from New York Stories (1989). She was also a favorite of Paul Mazursky, who cast her in Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976) and Willie & Phil (1980). Other film appearances include Arthur (1981), Honky Tonk Freeway (1981), Moonstruck (1987), License to Drive (1988), Coming to America (1988) and Used People (1992). In the late 1990s she began appearing on episodes of Law & Order, while continuing to make the occasional stage appearance in New York City.

2013

Helen Hanft died on May 30, 2013 of a post-surgical intestinal blockage, in Manhattan.