{{Short description|American actress (1911–2004)}} {{Use American English|date=January 2022}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Henny Backus | image = Henny Backus (1969).jpg | caption = Backus in 1969 | birth_name = Henrietta Kaye | birth_date = {{Birth date|1911|03|21|mf=yes}} | birth_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|2004|12|09|1911|03|21|mf=yes}} | death_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S. | other_names = Henriette Kaye | resting_place = Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery | occupation = Actress | years_active = 1936–1981 | spouse = {{plainlist| * Nat Karson * {{marriage|Jim Backus|1943|1989|reason=d.}} }} }}
'''Henny Backus''' (born '''Henrietta Kaye''', March 21, 1911 – December 9, 2004) was an American actress who was a Broadway showgirl in the 1930s. She played in Orson Welles's ''Horse Eats Hat''. She was the wife of actor and comedian Jim Backus.
==Career== [[Image:Horse-Eats-Hat-04.jpg|right|thumb|260px|Kaye in Orson Welles's surrealistic farce ''Horse Eats Hat'' (1936)]] She had the role of Bee in the Broadway play ''Chrysalis'' (1932).<ref>{{cite web |title=Henrietta Kaye |url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/henrietta-kaye-381124 |website=Internet Broadway Database |publisher=The Broadway League |access-date=July 12, 2020 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20200712013726/https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/henrietta-kaye-381124 |archive-date=July 12, 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref> Working as Henriette Kaye, she was a member of the Federal Theatre Project. Described by ''The New York Times'' as "a leggy redhead with a droll sense of humor",<ref name="NYT obit">{{cite news |last=Bayot |first=Jennifer |date=December 17, 2004 |title=Henny Backus, 93, an Actress and Author With Husband Jim, Dies|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/17/arts/17backus.html?pagewanted=print&position=&_r=0 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=2015-02-02 }}</ref> she appeared in Orson Welles's Project 891 production ''Horse Eats Hat'' (1936), a surrealistic farce co-starring Welles, Joseph Cotten, Hiram Sherman and Arlene Francis.<ref name="France Theatre of OW">France, Richard, ''The Theatre of Orson Welles''. Cranbury, New Jersey: Associated University Presses, Inc. 1977 {{ISBN|0-8387-1972-4}}</ref>{{Rp|182}} Her husband, Nat Karson,<ref name="NYT obit"/> designed the sets and costumes.<ref name="France Theatre of OW"/>{{Rp|182}}
Kaye married actor and comedian Jim Backus in 1943.<ref name="NYT obit"/> The couple co-starred in the 1960s television series ''Blondie'', and they performed together once on ''Gilligan's Island'', in the sitcom's second-season episode "Gilligan's Mother-In-Law" (1965). She appeared too with her husband in a season-five episode of ''The Love Boat''.
Henny and Jim Backus co-authored several humorous books, including ''What Are You Doing After the Orgy?'' (1962), ''Only When I Laugh'' (1965), ''Backus Strikes Back'' (1984), and ''Forgive Us Our Digressions'' (1988). Henny also wrote ''Care for the Caretaker'' (1999), documenting her husband's battle with Parkinson's disease and offering practical solutions for those facing such dilemmas.<ref name="NYT obit"/>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *{{iMDb name|0045737}} *{{IBDB name | 381124 | Henrietta Kaye}} *{{IBDB name | 47552 | Henriette Kaye}} *{{Find a Grave|10128723}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Backus, Henny}} Category:1911 births Category:2004 deaths Category:American stage actresses Category:American humorists Category:20th-century American memoirists Category:Burials at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery Category:Federal Theatre Project people Category:American women memoirists Category:20th-century American actresses Category:20th-century American women writers