{{short description|American actress}}
{{for|the New Zealand academic|Helen Moewaka Barnes}} {{Infobox person | name = Helen Barnes | image = Helen Barnes 001.JPG | caption = ''Munsey's Magazine'', 1920 | birth_name = Helen Gertrude Barnes | birth_date = {{Birth date |1895|7|5|mf=y}} | birth_place = Shelton, Connecticut, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1925|6|1|1895|7|5|mf=y}} | death_place = near Woodmont, Connecticut, U.S. | other_names = Helen G. Barnes | occupation = Actress; dancer }}
'''Helen Gertrude Barnes''' (July 5, 1895 – June 1, 1925) was an American musical comedy actress and Ziegfeld Follies Girl.
==Early life== Helen Gertrude Barnes was born on July 5, 1895, in Shelton, Connecticut, the first of two daughters raised by William and Anna Barnes. Her father hailed from Pennsylvania and supported his family as a day laborer and later as a typewriter salesman. Barnes’s mother was born in England of Scottish parents and had come to America, presumably with her parents, at around the age of two. William and Anna married in 1894, and in July 1896 completed their family with the birth of their second daughter, Ruth. Not long after Ruth’s arrival the Barnes family relocated to Washington D.C.<ref>Helen Gertrude Barnes – US Passport Application-July 28, 1922-Ancestry.com scan</ref><ref>William and Anna Barnes-Connecticut, District of Columbia – 1900–1910 US Census Records – Ancestry.com scan</ref>
==Career==
She began her career at the age of nineteen as a member of the chorus line in the 1914/15 Broadway musical ''Watch Your Step'' at the New Amsterdam Theatre. In May 1915 Barnes began a four-year association with Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. as performer in his annual ''Ziegfeld Follies'' shows at the same venue. Later in 1915 Barnes played Lotta Nichols in the musical comedy ''Stop! Look! Listen!'' over its four-month run at the Globe Theatre.<ref>[http://www.ibdb.com/person.php?id=30944 Helen Barnes Internet Broadway Database]</ref>
A ''New York Times'' reviewer wrote in a May 14, 1918, review of the play ''The Squab Farm'' by Frederic Hatton and Fanny Hatton, that Helen Barnes appeared to be the audience’s favorite squab. The play, a satire that compared a motion picture set to a barnyard, was performed at the Bijou Theatre with Helen Barnes playing the role of Hortense Hogan.<ref>"Movie Local Color in 'The Squab Farm'". ''The New York Times'', May 14, 1918; pg. 11</ref> ''The Squab Farm'' closed after a four-week run and had among its cast members sixteen-year-old Tallulah Bankhead.<ref>Bankhead, Tallulah (1952) ''Tallulah: My Autobiography''. Harper and Brothers. pg. 62</ref>
left|220px|thumb|Helen Barnes as a Ziegfeld Dancer<br> New York Public Library Digital Gallery
Barnes went on to play Georgie Van Alstyne in ''Oh, My Dear!'' (1918/19); Rhy Mac Donald in ''The Five Million'' (1919); Myrtilla Marne in ''An Innocent Idea'' (1920); and Tillie in ''Ladies' Night'' (1920/21).<ref>[http://www.ibdb.com/person.php?id=30944 Helen Barnes Internet Broadway Database]</ref>
==Travel== Helen Barnes turned to traveling in the early 1920s. She spent several months between 1920 and 1921 touring England and France and in 1922 embarked on a near year-long around the world tour in which she visited Scandinavia, Belgium, Monaco, Australia, New Zealand, India, Burma, Thailand, Ceylon, China, Hong Kong, Japan and Hawaii.<ref>Helen Gertrude Barnes – US Passport Applications September 9, 1920, July 28, 1922 Ancestry.com scans</ref><ref>Helen Barnes – Steamship Passenger Manifests SS Aquitania January 30, 1921; SS President Wilson September 2, 1922; <br>SS President Wilson July 13, 1923; SS President Taft August 23, 1923; Ancestry.com scans</ref>
==Death== Helen Barnes died in the early morning hours of June 1, 1925, in an automobile accident not far from Woodmont, Connecticut. She and her boyfriend, John Griffin, a junior at Sheffield Scientific School and son of a well-to-do manufacturer from Indiana, were traveling at a high speed when their car struck a slow moving vehicle, careened into another and then rolled over a number of times killing the two almost instantly. Friends of Griffin felt the other driver, who was later cited for driving without a vehicle license, shared some the blame for the tragedy due to his erratic driving. Barnes and Griffin had gone out that morning to dine at an all-night hotdog stand in nearby East Haven. Though there had been no official announcement, Griffin had previously told friends that the two planned to marry.<ref>"Two Auto Deaths Reveal Romance", ''The New York Times''; June 2, 1925; pg. 3</ref>
==Sources== {{Commons category|Helen Barnes}} {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Barnes, Helen}} Category:1895 births Category:1925 deaths Category:American stage actresses Category:Ziegfeld girls Category:People from Shelton, Connecticut Category:20th-century American actresses