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Barbara Hale

Barbara Hale

Actor · 1922 – 2017 · DeKalb, Illinois, USA

Barbara Hale (April 18, 1922 - January 26, 2017) was an American actress best known for her role as legal secretary Della Street on more than 250 episodes of the long-running Perry Mason television series and in 30 made-for-TV movies. Hale was born in DeKalb, Illinois, to Luther Ezra Hale, a landscape gardener, and his wife, Wilma Colvin. She is of Scots-Irish ancestry. Hale graduated from high school in Rockford, Illinois, then attended the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, planning to become an artist. Her performing career began in Chicago when she started modeling to pay for her education. She moved to Hollywood in 1943, and made her first screen appearances playing small parts (often uncredited). Hale was under contract to RKO Radio Pictures through the late 1940s. She appeared in Higher and Higher (1943) with Frank Sinatra; played leading lady to Robert Mitchum in West of the Pecos (1945); enjoyed top billing in both Lady Luck (1946) opposite Robert Young and The Window (1949) with Arthur Kennedy; and co-starred in Jolson Sings Again (1949), with Larry Parks playing Al Jolson and Hale as Jolson's wife, Ellen Clark. She played the top-billed title role in Lorna Doone (1951) and portrayed Julia Hancock in The Far Horizons (1955) with Fred MacMurray and Charlton Heston. Her flourishing movie career more or less ended when Hale accepted her best known role, Della Street, secretary to attorney Perry Mason, in the TV series with Raymond Burr. The show ran from 1957 to 1966, and she reprised the role in several television movies. Her last performance to date was in 2000 at age 78. In 1967 she guest starred on the ABC series Custer. Hale also had a featured role in the 1970 ensemble film Airport, playing the wife of a jetliner pilot (Dean Martin).

Movies24

  • Movie6.5

    Airport

    1970 · 466 votes

  • Movie6.9

    Big Wednesday

    1978 · 197 votes

  • Movie7.2
  • Movie4.6

    West of the Pecos

    1945 · 11 votes

  • Movie6.4
  • Movie6.2

    The Boy with Green Hair

    1948 · 68 votes

  • Movie7.5
  • Movie6.5
  • Movie6.3

    The Far Horizons

    1955 · 25 votes

  • Movie6.1

    7th Cavalry

    1956 · 19 votes

  • Movie6.5
  • Movie7.5
  • Movie6.4

    Last of the Comanches

    1953 · 24 votes

  • Movie7.3
  • Movie4.1
  • Movie6.7
  • Movie6.8
  • Movie5.7

    The Lone Hand

    1953 · 10 votes

  • Movie7.3
  • Movie6.9
  • Movie7.2
  • Movie5.8

    The Oklahoman

    1957 · 13 votes

  • Movie6.8
  • Movie5.6

    Lady Luck

    1946 · 8 votes

Series15

  • TV7.7

    Perry Mason

    1957 · 139 votes

  • TV7.1

    Adam-12

    1968 · 48 votes

  • TV6.3

    Lassie

    1954 · 74 votes

  • TV3.8

    Climax!

    1954 · 12 votes

  • TV6.6

    Marcus Welby, M.D.

    1969 · 20 votes

  • TV7.0

    Dinah!

    1974 · 4 votes

  • TV6.2

    The Doris Day Show

    1968 · 11 votes

  • TV5.8

    The Millionaire

    1955 · 4 votes

  • TV7.8
  • TV7.5

    Studio 57

    1954 · 2 votes

  • TV7.9
  • TV7.0
  • TV6.6

    Letter to Loretta

    1953 · 7 votes

  • TV6.8
  • TV7.2