Helen Gallagher is Dead to Me

No, No

Loved her so much as Maeve.

So young.

Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling . . .

Has Kate Mulgrew released a statement yet!

Grab your hankies

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, not Maeve Ryan. Both her sons were whores.

I did danny boy-many times

Delia Reed Ryan Ryan Coleridge Crane-one of my favorites

Broadway League, you know what to do.

We’re expecting a phone call any second now, R5.

Maeve

We called her Bowel Maevement

I know this is sacrilege, but I preferred Randall Edwards' Delia.

I always get a kick out of Ryan's Hope premiere episode; it was so bad. Frank Ryan fell down the stairs for the entire episode.

I loved Maeve.

I didn't know as much of her Broadway work but good for her for having a long career....she was teaching right up until the end......

Damn - there goes my childhood - Maeve!!!! …. hey - could someone - because I’m an idiot and don’t know how - Could someone post the wonderful “You Can Dance With Any Girl at All” from NoNo Nanette? Bobby Van is excellent in that, also.

My mom loved her on Ryan's Hope, which was one of her favorite shows. I didn't know she had won two Tonys already, before he stint on the soap! So many of the NY-based soap stars were established and serious Broadway actors, before and during their times on the soaps.

r13...

Any comment yet from Dorian Strassman? Helen played Mel’s mother on OLTL.

Shangri-La

R15 THANK YOU!!!!

Oh No, this is awful! First Earl Holliman and now this! What's going on? You've got a lot of explaining to do 2024!!! Does anyone know how she died?

Adored her! Seeing her at an early preview of the Boston try out of No No Nanette will remain one of my fondest nights in the theater.

r19, she was 98 so it's safe to say old age got her.

[quote][R19], she was 98 so it's safe to say old age got her.

I heard it was a bungee jump gone awry.

I saw Helen play Tallulah Bankhead in the flop Off-Broadway musical revue "Tallulah".

Helen was great and while not a good show, it tried hard and had its moments. Even though it was forty years ago I can recall two numbers clearly, one was "Never Book a Ride on the I.R.T." which was very funny. The other was the Act II opener, where Tallulah was supposed to be lonely and drunk late in the evening, it was called "Stay Awhile", and Helen as Tallulah had a tray of champagne glasses (full) which she doled out to those in the front rows. Naturally I got one and drank it to help enjoy (endure?) the second act!

*Denver...1974*

So, there we are, my friend Louise and I. After the matinee performance of Angela Lansbury in GYPSY, I thought it a good idea to see if we could go backstage and get Miss Angela Lansbury to sign our programs. We end up getting lost in the bowels of the Denver Auditorium Theatre.

A man and a woman are walking some distance ahead of us so I think we're going the right way. I recognize the woman as Helen Gallagher who was in town doing a local production of Nanette. I just blurted out "Helen Gallagher!". She stopped...turned around...glared at me and said "Right". She then turned back around and they kept walking until out of view.

Louise and I gave up and went home. At the time I remember thinking that it was Denver for chrissakes and she should have been thrilled to be recognized. Yes, Helen Gallagher was talented, but that didn't give her the right to traumatize teenagers. She *still* comes up in therapy.

Jesus Christ, r24! Who are you, Mia Farrow?

Let it GO!

Who, now?

R19 She was fighting an oil rig fire in the Gulf of Mexico. She was 98.

I was in acting class with her in the 1970s. She was lovely. Wicked sense of humor. I was too young to really appreciate her.

Did her obit mention a special lady friend?

Loved her “Where has my hubby gone blues” from “No No Nanette”!

She was known to be a bit on the frosty side. I remember reading several comments to that effect in the Ryan's Hope book from a few years ago, and others who worked with her on Broadway have said the same.

Has Rosemary Prinz released a statement yet?

From what I gather, Helen demanded respect but couldn't bear adulation, especially from anonymous fans. Acting, singing, dancing, it was all just a job to her, she was a perfectionist about her own work, and she took it very seriously, but she couldn't bear the public relations aspect of show biz.

*5* GIRLS *5*

No mention of Helen's husband but I think he was an actor, and they taught acting classes for musical theatre in their upper Westside apartment.

Hope she's flying the friendly skies. RIP

Oh no! I used to love going to her novelty store when I was in the mall back in the 70s and 80s!

I also only knew her as Maeve Ryan and had no idea of her Broadway history.

Same here, r38. I watched Ryan’s Hope and AMC religiously when I was in college and then some.years after. I am floored by reading now that 1) she was a Tony -winning musical star and 2) that she was NOT from Ireland! Her Irish accent was impeccable and I would know since my parents were both from Ireland. RIP Helen

I recently watched a random episode of "Ryan's Hope" on Youtube.

I know styles change but it was the worst acting on any soap I've ever seen, and the writing was TERRIBLE. I didn't think any of the actors were even half good. Was the whole soap this full of Blarney?

Her first Tony...

Helen being interviewed by Sue "THE FUCK??" Simmons.

r40 It was critically acclaimed but it definitely had terrible periods, and between a merry go round of recast actors and writers/producers it eventually lost most of its charm.

Helen in the aforementioned "Tallulah" musical.

Recreating her showstopping number from "Nanette"

Helen Gallagher was more vinegar-y than I was!

I saw NNN twice. First with the original cast (that was quite the party where everyone is dazzling, witty, funny, dancing, singing and having a ball and you leave on the biggest musical comedy high imaginable.)The second time a couple of years later where Martha Raye took over in the Patsy Kelly role and did Ruby's tap number in I want To Be Happy. Both times Helen and Bobby were amazing. Between those two performances Bobby had left to do Lost Horizon. The man you saw on stage was not the man in that embarrassing movie.

I then saw Helen in an off Broadway play with Dolores Gray at the Promenade Theater. Something about money. Don't remember much about. It was a preview and everyone looked genuinely scared.

I never knew she was famous for soaps. They were totally off my radar. I think she started out in the chorus of the original production of Brigadoon choreographed by Agnes DeMille.

There is a fairly comprehensive interview in front of an audience with her on youtube where she's close to 90. Amazing to see this indomitable veteran physically frail and old but still tough as nails. She covers a lot of Broadway history but it's as if everything was just a job. Though she absolutely adored Ruby and calls her a blue diamond. That history going back to the 40s is now gone.

Actress Julie Halston recalls performing in Off Broadway "Money Talks" with Gallagher and Dolores Grey, who had problems with line memorization ...

Julie told us that a telephone featured heavily in the show, but Dolores often didn't know where it was. One night it rang and rang while Dolores looked onstage for it. By the tenth ring, Helen Gallagher came onstage and yelled, "Pick up the phone!" Dolores then picked it up and said, "Why hello, Phyllis," which prompted Helen to re-enter and yell, "You're Phyllis!!!!"

That was it! Totally crazy.

Helen was featured in a small role as Walter Matthau's wife in the DL fave 1960 film STRANGERS WHEN WE MEET about illicit suburban sex starring Kim Novak and Kirk Douglas. She played sort of a Millie Helper role. I think that might have been her only film work, at least in Hollywood.

This bonus track on Sweet Charity CD reissue has Helen interviewed at opening night party.

She is so articulate, spot on, generous.

A bygone era.

try this link below

R50 That’s right! I forgot about that! That is a wonderful old movie with a terrific cast! Helen G & Walter Matthau - Kirk Douglas, Kim Novak and Ernie Kovaks. Plus the house that Kirk Douglas is building is another star. I’ll have to look it up - isn’t Barbara Rush Kirk’s wife?

r52 Gracias!

She recommended two of her acting students, Mary Carney and Kathleen Tolan for Kate Mulgrew's replacement as Mary. Needless to say, they were among the worst recasts ever on any soap.

There was a story of a famous producer, maybe Hal Prince who was asked for advice from a young actress. He pointed to Gallagher and said look at her. She comes to all these events, goes to every opening then goes home to her cat. Don't be like that.

Yet, Hal, Helen lived to be a happy and healthy 98.

Seems she never met a hat she didn’t like.

[quote] She recommended two of her acting students, Mary Carney and Kathleen Tolan for Kate Mulgrew's replacement as Mary. Needless to say, they were among the worst recasts ever on any soap.

With the exception of Marg Helgenberger and some of the Franks, was there ever a recast of one the Ryan kids that went well? I mean, I don’t think Randall Edwards was a bad Delia, she just had a different vibe and seemed like a different character. Unlike Robin Mattson, who was perfect on paper, but not so much onscreen.

Granted, it’s still a shame that they had to fire Sarah Felder, who was terrific, because the network didn’t think she was pretty enough.

Sarah Felder was SO good!

I would have had all the Franks gang bang me. Well, except for that really terrible one.

Apparently many fans agreed about Felder - in a poll over 30 years after her departure from RH, she was named one of the best actresses in daytime.

R60, I’ll take a few of the Patricks.

Oh yes, R62. Agreed!

There was a time when DL forbade all soap threads.

R64, I’m so glad that time has passed.

I love DL. I found it through a soap Google search.

R56, spinsters with cats often live long lives.

Marg Helgenberger was excellent but she wasn't Siobhan. The character was essentially Mary, renamed Siobhan. You could only go up from the original Frank, but Daniel Hugh Kelly was really good. Also, many of the core actors on RH stayed.

Post 600 on this thread should read:

"Have a good life!"

I wanted Dr. Seneca in me quite deeply. And - when he was younger - Jack, too.

Glad to see Helen got her obit in the NYT - not always a given for soap people, but she had a much longer theater career.

Kate Mulgrew on Instagram:

Goodbye to my first and only and enduring television mother, the incomparable Helen Gallagher: she was tough, kind, talented, full of laughter, and a triple threat to boot. But always tender towards me. Rest in peace, dear Helen. 🍀

I met Helen about 15 years she to talk about a project. She was quite the c u next Tuesday

R72, I hope you weren’t expected to be the project’s writer.

We got along.

I see in that NY Times obit Helen did marry and divorce and then had a partner (who she never married) for 40 years until his death in 2019.

How is it possible that in all those Follies revivals, they never got Helen to play Hattie (Broadway Baby) Walker or Stella (Who's That Woman?) Deems?? She would have been stellar in either role. I can only imagine she turned them down. Or did Hal Prince put a curse on her?

social media is why all the soap mags are dead. In the olden days, Soap Opera Weekly would have picked up the phone and called Mulgrew directly if they had a number or her rep. The rep would have said, 'Well, Kate will need a few days. What's your deadline?' and then, Kate would have either faxed or called in for a brief interview.

No one would know about Helen's passing until they read it in a magazine.

Now, everything is everywhere all at once and then it's old news within minutes.

The soap mags are dead because the soaps are dead, no?

How does Helen’s offscreen cuntiness rank in comparison to her fellow soap matriarchs:

Connie Ford

Mary Stuart

Helen Wagner

Charita Bauer

Ann Flood

Frances Reid

Well, Connie is in her own category. She could be a cunt but was more of a "suffer no fools" cunt.

I'd rank Mary Stuart as #1 Cunt with Wagner a very close second. I think Helen Gallagher is below that somewhere.

Charita and Frances were pretty beloved by their casts.

Trying to go through the Ryan's Hope book now to see specific mentions of Helen G. I remember it being very half and half.....half the cast loved her, the other half found her to be an icy cold bitch.

R33 Estelle Parsons is like that. Never EVER approach her.

John Blazo, one of the Pats, in the RH book:

During my first few weeks, Helen Gallagher looked at me and said, “You’re my son that I thought would be a priest. I thought you would be the one, but you became a doctor.” I just grinned. I am attracted to powerful women like that. She conducted a singing instruction class for actors at her home on the Upper West Side weekly. I made it my business to go. She was not the most open personality in the world, but I knew she liked me and vice versa.

The old bitch could be very nasty.

You're telling me!

R5 Yes, Mulgrew released a statement.

[quote]I would have had all the Franks gang bang me.

Even Anne and Barney?

Richard Muenz, the original Joe Novak, was a snack.

And speaking of replacements, Roscoe Born was so much better than Muenz. Problem was he was paired with not-Siobhan and his chemistry with future wife Randall Edwards was off the charts.

VOTN, I agree.

Jackee Harry called Connie Ford 'no day at the beach!'

WHET Roscoe Born?

He died a few years ago.

Oh no. I had no idea. I always thought he was a cut above the usual soap hunk, talents and looks, and was surprised he couldn't seem to get better work beyond that.

Yeah, he had struggled with bipolar disorder and committed suicide just before COVID lockdowns.

Thanks Voice. I figured he had problems but had no idea he had died, much less by his own hand.

Makes me remember your namesake.

So sad. Roscoe was sex on legs.

[quote] Makes me remember your namesake.

Me too.

Wherever Nate is, I hope he’s at peace.

I never discovered RH until SoapNet reruns in the early 00s. But the one death that really hit me was Nancy Addison. I really liked Jillian, and she seemed great.

R97 Nathaniel Marston?

...& boys

[quote]Apparently many fans agreed about Felder - in a poll over 30 years after her departure from RH, she was named one of the best actresses in daytime.

She really was great. And she and Michael Levin had really great chemistry, and considering how cold Nicolette Goulet's Mary was (and she was still the best of the recasts), you really end up rooting for Siobhan and Jack to get together. Goulet was a good corpse Mary, however. She managed to be stock still without any giveaways like her eyes moving.

I think she became an acting coach for other soaps, so at least they benefitted from her skills, if not on camera.

I just watched a fabulous interview with Helen, done almost 20 years ago, for the PBS American Masters on Jerome Robbins. It's outtakes so quite long and very detailed, almost an hour, and it was posted by "kieran" on AllTHatChat.

Sorry, I have no idea how to link it. But you can find it there or perhaps someone else here will link it.

I also found it amusing that GH, who ABC attempted to get RH to ape from the beginning (Labine and Mayer wanted to do a show about an Irish family that owned a bar, ABC wanted a hospital show, so they got a show about an Irish family who owned a bar across the street from a hospital, plus the mob moving in was a response to Luke and if there wasn’t a little of the Ice Princess in Delia and the gorilla…) reached its creative zenith under Claire Labine.

I wonder what it would have looked like if ABC had gone for Heart & Soul instead of Port Charles when they decided to cancel The City. Particularly since Labine was planning to have Helen play Lois’ grandmother. Although I wonder how she would have read trying to be Italian.

I believe this is the interview R102 referenced.

Nicollette Goulet went on to have a somewhat leading role as Fletcher Reade's sister Meredith on Guiding Light in the late 1980s. I sorta liked her character but apparently most of the cast didn't care much for her.

She died pretty young in 2008, a year after her famous father's death.

Goulet also had a role (however miscast) as Kathy on Search For Tomorrow.

Kathy? Wasn't she originally a big fat homely brunette?

She had some kind of quality that sometimes worked on the screen, but she was often miscast. Her role on GL seemed to work, at least for a while, but she played a good decade older on screen than Grant Aleksander and Michael O'Leary, and it seemed very unrealistic that those two men would fight over her character.

r104, thanks so much for posting the PBS interview! Well-worth a watch for all Gallagher fans.

R107, original Kathy wasn’t big or fat (or homely) but the character was a lot older than Goulet’s version. The recast was odd — similar to when EON recast Nicole.

Firing Sarah Felder - who really did the void when Mulgrew left - was unforgivable. That cunt Jackie Smith had it in for her, deemed her not pretty enough! I thought she had a great unique look - she looked Irish for pity's sake. The original Joe, Richard Muenz was sexier than Roscoe Born IMO.

R111 - couldn’t agree more!

Bernie Barrow was handsome in his younger days.

Wasn’t he paired with that hussy Marla Adams on another soap?

R113 he was the reformed crook Dan Kincaid on Secret Storm, married to Marla's delicious Belle Britton.

I always thought David Ackroyd - who played Bernie's son Kevin on SS would have made a great Frank Ryan.

R113 Yes. Barrow played "Dan Kincaid" on The Secret Storm, who married Marla's character "Belle (Clemens) Britton."

Dan had political ambitions and looked to become the state's next governor. He was spellbound by Belle, and she began to see herself as the wealthy governor's wife, so she divorced Professor Paul Britton and married Dan, becoming Mrs. Belle Kincaid. Dan had a secret life, though, as an underworld drug kingpin. Meanwhile, Belle's arch-enemy, "Amy Ames," had fallen in love with Dan's son, "Kevin Kincaid," and they also married, so the two women who hated each other were now in-laws, and were forced to play nice as a future political family. Everything collapsed when Dan's underworld connections were revealed, and he was sent to prison.

R115 I remember Belle's affair with the race car driver played by Dan Hamilton. One scene was pretty racy for soaps at that tine, Belle in a bubble bath luring Robert to her boudoir, and pulling him in with her. Dynasty copied that scene years later in a scene where the original Fallon, did the same with Michael the Chauffer.

I vaguely remember that r116. What I found most "adult" though, was the dialogue. Dan Hamilton's character talking about hormones etc. Was he as hot as I remember? I think he turned up briefly as a baddie during AW's 90 minute period.

Wasn't one of the Landers sisters on Secert Storm? Madeleine Sherwood too, aka Reverend Mother from The Flying Nun.

Yes, Secret Storm became known as something of a potboiler. It was early 70s and they were already doing stories about impotency, artificial insemination (with the cute doctor not disclosing that he'd used his own sperm), and the hot Catholic priest who fell in love and left his holy orders, then becoming alcoholic over it.

At least Melvyn Douglas didn't live to see her go.

Richard Muenz seems to have the left the business years ago both soaps and the theater.

Richard Muenz was handsome but an absolute blank as an actor. Zero chemistry with Sarah Felder and when you look at the triangle with Michael Levin, it was no contest.

Daniel Hugh Kelly was a hot fuck. Though I don't remember him from RH as much as I do from whatever prime time thingy he did.

He wasn't quite Joe Penny/Perry King hot, but he was up there.

I admire how bold they were with some of their storytelling choices. Around the time Siobhan first joined the show (if I remember correctly, in the original show bible, she was a nun), they had a story running between Pat and Nana Visitor’s character Nancy Feldman. They actually put the difficulties a Catholic and Jewish family (who otherwise really liked each other) had navigating an interfaith relationship. Maeve seemed to adore Nancy, but it was clear she was terrified Pat would marry her.

And while they couldn’t blatantly say it, they more or less had Siobhan working at an abortion clinic, which also horrified Maeve,

The older daughter (Kathleen?) who I think lived in Pittsburgh….I know her kids came to New York, but did we see her?

VOTN - apparently we did (I have no memory of this, though)

Apparently a massive cunt according to some who worked with her.

I started watching when Delia had hysterical blindness, and I was hooked.

Any relation to the guy who used to smash watermelons with a sledgehammer?

[quote] Nana Visitor’s character

Shit. I remember her as an alien on one of the Star Trek series, ranting about "THE KARDASHIANS!" before anyone knew who they were.

Wasn't Nana Visitor somehow related to Cyd Charisse?

Whatever happened to Zan Charisse?

R130, Zan lives in LA and has retired from the biz. She was the least impressive Louise I've ever seen and I saw all of originals except for Sandra Church.

Did Nan Charisse become Nana Visitor?

They always seem to base Gypsy's final hairdo on Natalie Wood's early 60s version in the film instead of 1938 Gypsy Rose Lee.

Helen had her best sex in her 80’s! Good for her!!

[quote]Wasn't Nana Visitor somehow related to Cyd Charisse?

Cyd Charisse was the aunt of Nana Visitor and Nana's sister, Zan Charisse, seen at R130. Nana Visitor also played Louise opposite Angela Lansbury in a post-Broadway tour of "Gypsy."

Zan, Nan and Cyd.

Nana also had a great run as Roxie in Chicago in the late 90s/early 00s.

It's my thread, you cheap bitches!

Nana Visitor in the Los Angeles production of "42nd Street."

Who on earth would choose the last name of Visitor?

Someone who didn't want to stick around.

R48 Helen and Dolores Gray went as far back as Seven Lively Arts. Dolores had begun to have memory issues, not just in Money Talks at the Promenade Theatre but in general, and disappeared from the performance side of showbiz shortly after. Helen was apparently mean to Dolores during the production period of Money Talks, but in a turkey that gets two bad reviews in the Times in 1990, you have to have someone to blame. The Playbill cover was so retouched it may as well have been a courtroom sketch.

She isn't the absolute cuntiest Helen.

Remember me?

Sometimes shy people and introverts come across as cunty. Many performers are shy and introverted.

[quote]The Playbill cover was so retouched it may as well have been a courtroom sketch.

Why, r142, whatever do you mean?

Maybe Helen was mean to Dolores because Dolores was impossible to work with?

CBS Sunday Morning neglected to include Helen and Earl Holliman in their weekly obits? WTF??

Helen and Dolores opened in this show 80 years ago this week.

Helen was 18 years old. Dolores was 20l.

Dolores Clitoris!

The Seven Lively Arts' set designer was Norman Bel Geddes, father of DL fave Barbara Bel Geddes. Also, in its ensemble were Michael Barrett, Follies' original Roscoe who sang "Beautiful Girls" and William Tabbert, South Pacific's original Lt. Cable who sang "Carefully Taught."

R149 Dolores Mulva

Don't forget Truly Barbara, r150.

I prefer Simply Barbara

*

Where the fuck is Ilene Kristen????

R154 Thank you!

Marry me, R153!

Will the lights of Broadway be dimmed for 2 time Tony winner and Golden Age star Helen Gallagher?

Gemma was having sex well into her 90’s. Good for her!!!!