Barbara Hale
Personal Info
Known for
Acting
Gender
Female
Birthday
1922-04-18
Day of Death
2017-01-26 (94 years old)
Place of Birth
DeKalb, Illinois, USA
Barbara Hale
Biography
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).
Known For
Acting
(1995)
Perry Mason: The Case of the Jealous Jokester
as Della Street
(1994)
Perry Mason: The Case of the Grimacing Governor
as Della Street
(1994)
Perry Mason: The Case of the Lethal Lifestyle
as Della Street
(1993)
Perry Mason: The Case of the Skin-Deep Scandal
as Della Street
(1993)
Perry Mason: The Case of the Killer Kiss
as Della Street
(1993)
Perry Mason: The Case of the Wicked Wives
as Della Street
(1993)
Perry Mason: The Case of the Telltale Talk Show Host
as Della Street
(1992)
Perry Mason: The Case of the Reckless Romeo
as Della Street
(1992)
Perry Mason: The Case of the Fatal Framing
as Della Street
(1992)
Perry Mason: The Case of the Heartbroken Bride
as Della Street
(1991)
Perry Mason: The Case of the Glass Coffin
as Della Street
(1991)
Perry Mason: The Case of the Ruthless Reporter
as Della Street
(1991)
Perry Mason: The Case of the Fatal Fashion
as Della Street
(1991)
Perry Mason: The Case of the Maligned Mobster
as Della Street
(1990)
Perry Mason: The Case of the Desperate Deception
as Della Street
(1990)
Perry Mason: The Case of the Silenced Singer
as Della Street
(1990)
Perry Mason: The Case of the Defiant Daughter
as Della Street
(1990)
Perry Mason: The Case of the Poisoned Pen
as Della Street
(1989)
Perry Mason: The Case of the Musical Murder
as Della Street
(1989)
Perry Mason: The Case of the Lethal Lesson
as Della Street
(1989)
Perry Mason: The Case of the All-Star Assassin
as Della Street
(1988)
Perry Mason: The Case of the Lady in the Lake
as Della Street
(1988)
Perry Mason: The Case of the Avenging Ace
as Della Street
(1987)
Perry Mason: The Case of the Scandalous Scoundrel
as Della Street
(1987)
Perry Mason: The Case of the Sinister Spirit
as Della Street
(1987)
Perry Mason: The Case of the Lost Love
as Della Street
(1987)
Perry Mason: The Case of the Murdered Madam
as Della Street
(1986)
Perry Mason: The Case of the Notorious Nun
as Della Street
(1986)
Perry Mason: The Case of the Shooting Star
as Della Street
(1985)
Perry Mason Returns
as Della Street
(1978)
Big Wednesday
as Mrs. Barlow
(1978)
The Young Runaways
as Mrs. Ogle
(1976)
The Flight of the Grey Wolf
as Mrs Hanson
(1975)
The Giant Spider Invasion
as Dr. Jenny Langer
(1973)
Chester, Yesterday’s Horse
as Mrs. Belle Kincaid
(1970)
Airport
as Sarah Demerest
(1970)
The Red, White, and Black
as Mrs. Alice Grierson
(1968)
Buckskin
as Sarah Cody
(1958)
Desert Hell
as Celie Edwards
(1957)
The Oklahoman
as Anne
(1957)
Slim Carter
as Allie Hanneman
(1956)
7th Cavalry
as Martha Kellogg
(1956)
The Houston Story
as Zoe Crane
(1955)
The Far Horizons
as Julia Hancock
(1955)
Meet the Governor
as June Waters
(1955)
Unchained
as Mary Davitt
(1953)
Seminole
as Revere
(1953)
A Lion Is in the Streets
as Verity Wade
(1953)
Last of the Comanches
as Julia Lanning
(1953)
The Lone Hand
as Sarah Jane Skaggs
(1952)
The First Time
as Betsey Bennett
(1951)
Lorna Doone
as Lorna Doone
(1950)
The Jackpot
as Amy Lawrence
(1950)
Emergency Wedding
as Dr. Helen Hunt
(1949)
The Window
as Mary Woodry
(1949)
The Clay Pigeon
as Martha Gregory
(1949)
And Baby Makes Three
as Jacqueline 'Jackie' Walsh
(1949)
Jolson Sings Again
as Ellen Clark
(1948)
The Boy with Green Hair
as Miss Brand
(1947)
A Likely Story
as Vicki
(1946)
Lady Luck
as Mary Audrey
(1945)
First Yank into Tokyo
as Abby Drake
(1945)
West of the Pecos
as Rill Lambeth
(1944)
The Falcon in Hollywood
as Peggy Callahan
(1944)
The Falcon Out West
as Marion Colby
(1944)
Goin' to Town
as Patty
(1944)
Heavenly Days
as Angie
(1944)
Prunes and Politics
as Miss Barlow
(1943)
The Seventh Victim
as Subway Passenger (Uncredited)
(1943)
Around the World
as Barbara Hale
(1943)
Higher and Higher
as Katherine
(1943)
The Iron Major
as Sarah Cavanaugh
(1943)
Government Girl
as Girl in Hotel Lobby (uncredited)
(1943)
Gildersleeve's Bad Day
as Girl seeking donations from Gildersleeve