Acting
Sep 27, 1923
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Helen Horton
Acting
Biography
Helen Virginia Horton (November 21, 1923 – September 28, 2007) was an American actress. She was born in Chicago and had a brief career in New York. She married Hamish Thomson and lived near London. She worked extensively in British television, radio and theatre, and had three children; her granddaughter is the English actress Lily James. Horton voiced the ship's computer, "Mother", in the 1979 film Alien. Horton attended Northwestern University where she became lifelong friends with Patricia Neal (Helen Benson in The Day the Earth Stood Still). She was well thought of in the drama department and was cast as Viola, the lead role in Twelfth Night, with Neal cast as Olivia, in a university production of the Shakespeare play. In September 1945, Horton and Neal took a shared apartment in New York and looked for work. They both got parts in a production of Seven Mirrors at the Blackfriars Theatre. Horton took over from Vivien Leigh as Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire after the play's London run was completed and it began to tour the United Kingdom. When Neal mentioned the connection to Leigh, she remarked "No one takes over for me, dear. When I leave a play, it's over."
Feature Films (20)
The man called Obam struggles with the increasingly hostile forces facing each other in a colonial African country. The African natives want their land and lives back from the British colonists. Obam's motives are questioned by his own people, in particular his brother Kanda. With the help of his wife Renee and missionary Bruce Craig, will he be able to get things under control before the country self-destructs? Written by Greg Bruno
The Mark of the Hawk
Shiftless dreamer Michael Rogers fantasizes about a lifestyle above his means and marries a wealthy, young girl who just came of age. They hire a famous architect to build their dream home amidst a series of suspicious incidents. The spouse has dark intentions toward his naive, inexperienced bride. Secrets from his past and sinister ties to their house guest Greta lead to a terrible turn of unexpected events.
Endless Night
Arizona ants mock the food chain on their way to a desert lab to get two scientists and a woman.
Phase IV
A lawyer representing Amnesty International tries to find the whereabouts and condition of 17 political prisoners detained in a country known for its systematic torture of prisoners.
Forgotten Prisoners: The Amnesty Files
An American WWI veteran undertakes a spiritual quest that takes him from Paris to Nepal to the Himalayas and back to his hometown. Upon his return, he discovers he is not the only one who has changed.
The Razor's Edge
'Strange Stories' consists of two stories, 'The Strange Mr Bartleby' and 'The Strange Journey'. The stories were sometimes shown individually on television.
Strange Stories
Peter Carter, his wife Sally and their young daughter Jean move to a sleepy Canadian village, where Peter has been hired as a school principal. Their idyll is shattered when Jean becomes the victim of an elderly, and extremely powerful, paedophile. The film was neither a box office nor a critical success, it garnered criticism for breaking a significant public taboo.
Never Take Sweets from a Stranger
A reconstruction of an event in 1968 when a converted cargo ship the USS Pueblo was seized by the North Korean Navy as a spy ship. It was supposed to be protected by the US Pacific Fleet but they are out of range at this time. The play concerns Captain Bucher and his crew left on their own to deal with duty, their own lives and preventing another Korean War.
The Pueblo Affair
During its return to the earth, commercial spaceship Nostromo intercepts a distress signal from a distant planet. When a three-member team of the crew discovers a chamber containing thousands of eggs on the planet, a creature inside one of the eggs attacks an explorer. The entire crew is unaware of the impending nightmare set to descend upon them when the alien parasite planted inside its unfortunate host is birthed.
Alien
On receiving an inheritance from her grandfather, Canadian Jeannie MacLean decides to visit the family's Scottish roots. On the plane she meets businessman Stanley Smith, and romance blossoms in Edinburgh. The complications begin when Stanley breaks a date with Jeannie to woo voluptuous redhead Helene, and Jeannie is flattered by the attentions of the impoverished Lord McNairn; he's heard about her good fortune, and gallantly offers to show her the city.
Let's Be Happy
The arrival of some unwanted visitors interrupts the peaceful Cuban home life of sisters Dolores, Carmen and Elvira, as their presence stirs up unwelcome memories.
Widows' Nest
Television & Series (16)
The Benny Hill Show is a British comedy television show that starred Benny Hill and aired in various incarnations between 15 January 1955 and 30 May 1991 in over 140 countries. The show focused on sketches that were full of slapstick, mime, parody, and double-entendre. Thames Television cancelled production of the show in 1989 due to declining ratings and large production costs at £450,000 per show.
The Benny Hill Show
Ann, a former chorus girl marries above herself into a rich society family, but her mother-in-law regards her with great suspicion from the start. When Ann shoots her husband dead, claiming she thought he was a prowler, the older Mrs. Grenville decides to back the woman she despises, to protect the family image.
The Two Mrs. Grenvilles
The story of two newly qualified nurses on their first assignment in the West Indies.
Hurricane
Van der Valk is a British television series produced by Thames Television and Eustom Films for the ITV network. It stars Barry Foster as Dutch detective Commissaris 'Piet' van der Valk. Based on the characters and atmosphere of the novels of Nicolas Freeling, the first series was shown in 1972.
