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Barbara Hale

Barbara Hale

Birthday: 1922-04-18 | Place of Birth: DeKalb, Illinois, USA

Barbara Hale is 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 later reprising the role 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).

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Known For

Acting

Year
Title

Role

1993
1993
1992
1992
1991
1990
1987
1985
Perry Mason Returns

as    Della Street

1975
The Giant Spider Invasion

as    Dr. Jenny Langer

1970
The Red, White, and Black

as    Mrs. Alice Grierson

1968
Buckskin

as    Sarah Cody

1957
The Oklahoman

as    Anne

1957
Perry Mason

as    Della Street

1956
The Houston Story

as    Zoe Crane

1955
The Far Horizons

as    Julia Hancock

1953
Seminole

as    Revere

1951
Lorna Doone

as    Lorna Doone

1949
Jolson Sings Again

as    Ellen Clark

1949
And Baby Makes Three

as    Jacqueline 'Jackie' Walsh

1949
The Clay Pigeon

as    Martha Gregory

1949
The Window

as    Mary Woodry

1945
First Yank into Tokyo

as    Abby Drake

1945
West of the Pecos

as    Rill Lambeth

1944
The Falcon Out West

as    Marion Colby

1944
The Falcon in Hollywood

as    Peggy Callahan