Helen Shaver
Birthday: Born in 1951-02-24 in Saint Thomas, Ontario, Canada
Deathday: Alive
Helen Shaver is a Canadian stage, film and television actress and director. She attended the Banff School of Fine Arts and studied Acting at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. She started acting at 18, collaborating with industry giants like Scorsese and Spielberg. Her performances earned awards—Theatreworld Award for "Jake’s Woman," Genies for "In Praise of Older Women" (Best Actress) and "Who Has Seen the Wind" (Best Supporting Actress). Transitioning to directing, she helmed episodes for various series and directed Emmy-winning films like "Summer’s End." Despite childhood illness, her resilience led her to study acting and excel in her craft.
TV Credits
Columbo
Character: Vivian Dimitri
Columbo is a friendly, verbose, disheveled-looking police detective who is consistently underestimated by his suspects. Despite his unprepossessing appearance and apparent absentmindedness, he shrewdly solves all of his cases and secures all evidence needed for indictment. His formidable eye for detail and meticulously dedicated approach often become clear to the killer only late in the storyline....
T. J. Hooker
Character: Lisa Jericho
Sergeant Thomas Jefferson Hooker is a tough-as-nails veteran police officer with the LCPD who turns his back on a gold badge and goes back to patrolling the streets and training recuits. Along with his young partners in blue, Hooker take on Lake City's toughest criminals....
The 4400
Character: Barbara Yates
4400 centers on the return of 4400 people who, previously presumed dead or reported missing, reappear on Earth. Though they have not aged physically, some of them seem to have deeper alterations ranging from superhuman strength to an unexplained healing touch. A government agency is formed to track the 4400 people after one of them commits a murder....
Hill Street Blues
Character:
A realistic glimpse into the daily lives of the officers and detectives at an urban police station....
The L Word
Character: Faye Buckley
A group of lesbian friends struggle with romance and careers in Los Angeles....
The Ray Bradbury Theater
Character: Miss Haight
A Canadian-produced fantastic anthology series scripted by famed science-fiction author Ray Bradbury. Many of the teleplays were based upon Bradbury's novels and short stories....
WIOU
Character: Kelby Robinson
WIOU is an American television drama series, which aired on CBS in 1990 and 1991. The show is set in the news department of a fictional television station whose actual callsign is WNDY, but which is nicknamed WIOU by its staff because of the station's perennial financial struggles. The show stars John Shea as news director Hank Zaret. The cast also includes Mariette Hartley as executive producer Liz McVay, Harris Yulin and Helen Shaver as news anchors Neal Frazier and Kelby Robinson, Phil Morri...
The Education of Max Bickford
Character: Erica Bettis
The Education of Max Bickford is a television drama that aired from 2001 to 2002 on CBS. It starred Richard Dreyfuss as the title character, a college professor of American Studies at Chadwick College, an all-women's school in New Jersey. Also starring was child actor Eric Ian Goldberg, who portrayed the young Lester Bickford, Max's son. Max's colleagues included Marcia Gay Harden as Andrea Haskell, his former student who had recently joined the faculty, and Helen Shaver as his best friend Erica...
Poltergeist: The Legacy
Character: Rachel Corrigan, MD
The adventures of the members of a secret society known as the Legacy and their efforts to protect humankind from occult dangers....
Jessica Novak
Character:
Jessica Novak is a 1981 drama television series that aired on CBS from November 5, 1981 till December 3, 1981 and was written by Ira Steven Behr. The cast includes Helen Shaver, Kip Gilman, Erik Kilpatrick, and Lara Parker....
The Outer Limits
Character: Cathy Kress
Anthology series of composed of distinct story episodes, sometimes with a plot twist at the end, with occasional recurring story elements that were often tied together during season-finale clip shows....
B.L. Stryker
Character:
B.L. Stryker is an American detective drama that aired on ABC from February 13, 1989 to May 5, 1990 as part of the ABC Mystery Movie along with Gideon Oliver, Columbo and Kojak. The series was executive produced by Tom Selleck....
Amazing Stories
Character: Karen
A truly amazing, fantastical, science fiction, funny and odd, and sometimes scary, sad and endearing anthology series presented by Steven Spielberg with guest appearances by many famous actors, actresses, and directors....
Philip Marlowe, Private Eye
Character: Belle Delaguerra
Philip Marlowe, Private Eye is a British mystery series that aired on ITV in the United Kingdom under the shorter title 'Marlowe, Private Eye' and on HBO in the United States from April 16, 1983 through June 3, 1986. The series features Powers Boothe as Raymond Chandler's titular character, and was the first drama produced for HBO....
Search and Rescue
Character: Dr. Liz Warren
Search and Rescue is the title of a family-oriented adventure television series which was a co-production of the CTV television network in Canada and NBC in the United States during the 1977-1978 TV season. The program was aired in prime time in Canada and on Saturday mornings by NBC. It was later syndicated overseas. The American broadcasts of the series carried the modified title Search and Rescue: The Alpha Team. The series starred Michael J. Reynolds as Dr. Bob Donell, the leader of a uniqu...
Movie Credits
Desert Hearts
Character: Vivian Bell
While waiting for her divorce papers, a repressed literature professor finds herself unexpectedly attracted by a carefree, spirited young woman named Cay....
D.C. Sniper: 23 Days of Fear
Character: Sandy Moose
Based on the known events that shook the United States for 23 days in 2002. Within 24 hours six people were killed by a sniper in Maryland County. A man and his son get overlooked in all settings where shootings occur. The police, in cooperation with the FBI follows the wrong track of a white van, while the murderers act with impunity and panic seizes the population...
Tremors 2: Aftershocks
Character: Kate 'White' Reilly
Earl Bassett's celebrity after defeating the Graboid attack against the town of Perfection has proved short-lived, until he's recruited by a Mexican oil company whose workers have found more than they bargained for under the soil....
Best Defense
Character: Claire
An engineer fails to get the bugs out of a tank before an Army officer has to use it in Kuwait....
The Color of Money
Character: Janelle
Former pool hustler "Fast Eddie" Felson decides he wants to return to the game by taking a pupil. He meets talented but green Vincent Lauria and proposes a partnership. As they tour pool halls, Eddie teaches Vincent the tricks of scamming, but he eventually grows frustrated with Vincent's showboat antics, leading to an argument and a falling-out. Eddie takes up playing again and soon crosses paths with Vincent as an opponent....
The Believers
Character: Jessica Halliday
Mourning the accidental death of his wife and having just moved to New York with his young son, laconic police psychologist Cal Jamison is reluctantly drawn into a series of grisly, ritualistic murders involving the immolation of two youths....
The Osterman Weekend
Character: Virginia Tremayne
The host of an investigative news show is convinced by the CIA that the friends he has invited to a weekend in the country are engaged in a conspiracy that threatens national security....
The Craft
Character: Grace
A Catholic school newcomer falls in with a clique of teen witches who wield their powers against all who dare to cross them -- be they teachers, rivals or meddlesome parents....
That Night
Character: Ann O'Connor
A coming-of-age story about an eleven-year-old girl who idolizes her troubled sixteen-year-old neighbor....
Countdown to Looking Glass
Character: Dorian Waldorf
A fictional confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union over the Strait of Hormuz, the gateway to the Persian Gulf. The narrative of the film details the events that lead up to the initial exchange of nuclear weapons from the perspective of an on-going news broadcast....
The Keeper
Character: Ruthie
When an apparently exemplary cop abducts and secretly imprisons a beautiful dancer, a deadly battle of wills between captor and captive ensues....
Outrageous!
Character: Jo
Gay hair stylist Robin Turner does a lot of work for drag queens, all the while dreaming that he'll someday find the courage to perform in drag himself. When his schizophrenic friend, Liza, turns up looking for a place to stay, the two form an increasingly tight bond, Robin helping Liza through an unplanned pregnancy and Liza pushing Robin to develop a successful nightclub act....
Starship Invasions
Character: Betty Duncan
Captain Rameses and his Legion of the Winged Serpent brigade are out to claim Earth for their dying race. Out to save Earth is an alien guard patrol located in the Bermuda Triangle, the League of Races. LOR leaders warn Rameses that he's breaking galactic treaty rules. The alien villain responds by launching an invasion which telepathically drives Earthlings to suicide. The LOR implore UFO expert Professor Duncan to help them. Eventually, the two alien forces battle. Will the Earth be saved?...
Bear with Me
Character: Sara Bradley
An orphaned bear cub is adopted by little Emily and her family. They name the cub Masha, raise her and release her back into the wild. Three years go by, and Emily is lost deep in the forest. Cold, frightened and alone in the darkness, she falls and is knocked unconscious. When she awakens, Emily is amazed to see that a brown bear has kept her warm and dry all night by cuddling her. It's Masha – and Emily is overjoyed to be reunited with the bear just when she needs a friend most. Together the t...
Without Consent
Character: Nora Fields
After being sent to an abusive psychiatric facility by her well-meaning parents, a rebellious teenager must fight for her release....
Born to Be Wild
Character: Margaret Heller
Rick Heller is a juvenile delinquent who keeps getting himself into trouble. To keep him out of trouble his mother puts him to work cleaning the cage of a gorilla named Katie which she is teaching to communicate through the use of sign language. When the owner of the gorilla takes her back to become a flea market freak Rick takes it upon himself to break Katie out and take her on an adventurous journey to get her out of the country....
The Park Is Mine
Character: Valery
A Vietnam vet takes forceful control of Central Park to remember those who served and died in the Vietnam War....
A Very Merry Daughter of the Bride
Character: Rose
A wedding planner looks to persuade her mother not to marry a man she's only known for a brief period of time, until an unexpected development forces her to re-examine her feelings....
High-Ballin'
Character: Pickup
When a rash of targeted hijackings threatens to derail the independent trucking business, rig driver "Iron" Duke and his visiting friend Rane put the brakes on the bad guys by taking the law into their own hands. But their vigilante plan involves going toe-to-toe with powerful trucker boss King Carroll and his henchmen, who've been driving everyone out of the game....
Harry Tracy, Desperado
Character: Catherine Tuttle
By the turn of the 20th century, Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, Billy the Kid and virtually all of the West's legendary outlaws are either dead or in jail pending execution. Well, all, except train robber and escape artist extraordinaire, Harry Tracy. As the last survivor of the Wild Bunch, Tracy pulls off a series of profitable robberies before making his way west to Portland, Oregon, in search of Catherine Tuttle -- a judge's daughter who has captured his heart. But on the way, Tracy is betr...
In Praise of Older Women
Character: Ann MacDonald
Andras Vayda grows up in a turbulent, war-torn Hungary, where he procures local girls for the occupying G.I.'s during World War II. Disappointed by girls of his age, he meets Maya, a married women in her thirties, who tutors him in the lessons of love and romance. Maya is only the first of many mature women that Andras will meet through his teenage and young adult life....
Falling For You
Character: Mary
When Meg gets thrown out of her apartment window by a serial killer, she's determined to make him pay. But finding this criminal might be difficult considering she's suffering from amnesia. Still, it won't take Meg long to cross paths with this sociopath — because he now lives in her building. This thriller has a finale you'll never ever ever see coming!...
Coming Out Alive
Character: Isobel
A woman hires a contract-killer when her ex-husband kidnaps her son....
The Sweetest Gift
Character: Mrs. Martin
Two neighboring families in Florida, one black and one white, struggle with the problems of race, poverty, prejudice, and absent fathers, as their children become friends over the course of one summer and fall....
The Land Before Time
Character: Littlefoot's Mother (voice)
An orphaned brontosaurus named Littlefoot sets off in search of the legendary Great Valley. A land of lush vegetation where the dinosaurs can thrive and live in peace. Along the way he meets four other young dinosaurs, each one a different species, and they encounter several obstacles as they learn to work together in order to survive....
The Risen
Character: Lynn Todd
A pregnant woman has an emergency operation to save her life but comes out of the procedure with amnesia....
Survive The Night
Character: Stacy
On their way home from Brooklyn, psychiatrist Vic, daughter Julie and sister Stacey run short of gas. They leave the highway to search for a petrol station - but end up erring around in South Bronx. A youth gang led by the sadistic Ice stops their car and starts terrorizing them. Without fuel, the 3 women soon have to flee by foot and defend their life with all means possible....
Lovey: A Circle of Children, Part II
Character: Patty
A sequel to "A Circle of Children" (1977). A teacher of "emotionally disturbed" children takes on a new student who is considered to be "untrainable" by public school authorities, psychiatrists, and medical doctors. Even the child's own mother, who is very loving, does not have the tools to reach her "hopeless" child. This is the further story of a teacher who understood what it was like to be eight years old and hurt and angry and confused; a teacher who saw these children for who they were, ra...
Bethune: The Making of a Hero
Character: Mrs. Dowd
True story of Norman Bethune, a medical doctor who fought for justice in China during Mao's rise to power....
Fatal Memories
Character: Elaine Tipton
Fact based story about a woman who after 20 years starts having memories of her own molestation by her father and the murder of one of her childhood playmates by him....
Murder So Sweet
Character: Edie Ballew
A hometown heartthrob (Harry Hamlin) marries the local beauties and then poisons them in this true story of a real lady killer. His ex-wife suspects that he is responsible for the death of his latest wife, and enlists the help of a detective to prove her right....
Walking After Midnight
Character: Self
Explores the past-life experiences of various celebrities....
Pair of Aces
Character: Rose
A Texas Ranger has to protect his two daughters as he investigates a serial killer who is attacking cheerleaders. Meanwhile he finds himself working with a safe cracker who claims to be innocent of the charges filed against him....
Between Two Brothers
Character: Susan Frazer
Bob Frazer is a prominent attorney who compulsively tries to make amends with his younger, less polished brother, Russ, who runs the family business and harbors the guilt for their father's recent death....
Morning Glory
Character: Lula Peak
An ex-convict who is on parole is accused of murdering a loose woman in the town where he works....
Numb
Character: Audrey Milbank
Hudson Milbank is a successful Hollywood screenwriter who suddenly and strangely finds himself without any emotional feelings. He tries doctor after doctor and shrink after shrink, but nothing works. The Golf Channel, lesbian exercise classes and a dizzying variety of pills get him through the day, but don't quite solve his problem. His writing partner tries everything to get him back to normal, but it's not until Hudson meets Sara that he finds a real motivation to get better and to actually st...
Who Has Seen the Wind
Character: Ruth Thompson
The coming-of-age of adolescent Brian O'Connal in small town Depression-era Saskatchewan is told. The son of the local pharmacist Gerald O'Connal, Brian is in many ways a typical boy, who dislikes school if only because of his run-ins with the nervous schoolteacher, Miss MacDonald, and who tries to catch gophers with his friends, Artie and Forbsie. His best friend and protector is slightly older Jonathan Ben, better known as The Young Ben (as his father is referred to as The Ben), who is highly ...
Shoot
Character: Paula
When boredom, pride and a mad second of misjudgement leaves a hunter shot dead by one of five combat veterans also hunting in the Canadian hills, it is expected a police investigation will follow, but when the veterans discover the incident has not been reported, the leader of the team, Major Rex suspects the other party maybe plotting revenge. Convinced that he, his party, and their families will be targets themselves he decides to beat his suspected assailants at their own game, grouping toget...
Birthday Cake
Character: Judith Ferguson
Soap actor Steven and his husband Daniel decide to throw the ultimate first birthday party for their daughter. What Daniel doesn’t know is that Steven has invited Daniel’s estranged religious mother and sister to the party. Now, Daniel sees the festivities beginning to spiral out of control. There’s now a dead clown, a demanding diva, a cake that unfortunately looks like a lifeless baby, and a manhunt in the neighborhood for a murderer!...
Common Ground
Character: Janet
This movie contains three short stories dealing with the theme of homosexuality. In "A Friend of Dorothy", a woman joins the Navy during the 1950's and discovers lesbianism. In "Mr. Roberts", a teacher in a 1970's classroom struggles with his closeted gay status. Finally in "Amos and Andy", a father wrestles with his own emotional acceptance of a present day wedding between his son and another man....
The Forget-Me-Not Murders
Character: Monique
A detective tries to track down a serial killer who is thought to be targeting the policeman's god-daughter....
The Naked Man
Character:
Indian child grows up to seek revenge on the man that raped and murdered his parents....
Zebrahead
Character: Diane
Interracial love story set in Detroit....
Mothers, Daughters and Lovers
Character: Claire Nichols
A single mother struggles to raise two teenage daughters in a small town in America....
Many Happy Returns
Character: Sally Robinson
In this satire of the I.R.S., George Segal plays an Average Joe targeted for the Audit from Hell. His bank accounts are frozen, his home and business are attached by the government, and his wife leaves him. Segal is forced to move into the house of his obnoxious brother-in-law where lot of Odd Couple-type comedy ensues. Segal then plots to turn the tables on the I.R.S., and win back his wife and life....
Gas
Character: Rhonda
Susan Anspach stars in this comedy as a news reporter who investigates a story about stolen milk causing milk and gas prices to rise. During the course of her investigation, other people become involved, culminating in a multiple car chase....
The War Boy
Character: Maria
The 12-year-old son of a freedom fighter grows up fast in World War II Yugoslavia....
The Wishing Tree
Character: Wallis
When her storyteller mother (Mary Alice) dies, attorney Clara Collier (Alfre Woodard) returns to her Georgia hometown and is soon captivated by a local legend of the "Magic Man" (Blair Underwood). While looking for the source of the tale, Clara uncovers suprising family secrets. Czech filmmaker Ivan Passer directs this family drama that delves into the storytelling tradition of the Deep South. Blair Underwood and Helen Shaver co-star....
The Amityville Horror
Character: Carolyn
George Lutz, his wife Kathy, and their three children have just moved into a beautiful, and improbably cheap, Victorian mansion nestled in the sleepy coastal town of Amityville, Long Island. However, their dream home is concealing a horrific past and soon each member of the Lutz family is plagued with increasingly strange and violent visions and impulses....
Women in Love: Helen Shaver and Patricia Charbonneau on Desert Hearts
Character: Self
DESERT HEARTS depended on the connection between its two lead actors, Patricia Charbonneau and Helen Shaver, and on their trust in director Donna Deitch. In the following program, made by the Criterion Collection in New York in 2017, the actors and the director discuss the making of the film, the close bond they formed, and the ways it changed their lives....
Lost!
Character:
Bob and his wife Linda accompany his brother Jim on a sailing cruise to Costa Rica, where Jim will start as a missionary. In a terrible storm their boat flips over. Jim believes the accident was a sign from god and throws away their distilling apparatus and food - "You shall not interfere with god's will". However nobody knows they're lost, so no one searches them for weeks....
Souls of Totality
Character:
A love story set during the Great American Eclipse....
Tree of Hands
Character: Benet Archdale
A woman is attempting to cope with her son's tragic death when her mother arrives on an ill-timed visit with her own remedies....
We All Fall Down
Character: Sherry
In this dark independent drama, Michael (Darcy Belsher) is an out of work actor who has been trying to pull himself out of a downward spiral of drug abuse that set in after the death of his mother. Michael's best friend Kris (Martin Cummins) is, if anything, in even worse shape; a gifted artist, Kris' appetite for drugs has all but silenced his muse, and his girlfriend Ryan (Francoise Robertson) has little interest in helping him control his dangerous appetites. The drug-related death of a close...
Body Double
Character: Gloria Revelle (voice) (uncredited)
After losing an acting role and his girlfriend, Jake Scully finally catches a break: he gets offered a gig house-sitting in the Hollywood Hills. While peering through the beautiful home's telescope one night, he spies a gorgeous woman dancing in her window. But when he witnesses the girl's murder, it leads Scully through the netherworld of the adult entertainment industry on a search for answers—with porn actress Holly Body as his guide....
The Supreme Kid
Character: Girl hitch-hiker
Two Canadian drifters (Frank Moore, Jim Henshaw) become involved in crime after meeting unsavoury characters....
Ride with the Wind
Character: Katherine Barnes
Frank Shelby is a motorcycle racer for whom age, personal tragedy and a love for the bottle have supplanted hopes of the big time. But when he meets Katherine, a widow whose young son, Danny, has leukemia, Frank forms an unexpected bond with them. And Danny's determination in the face of his illness gives Frank a newfound drive to win....
Calling the Shots
Character: Self
Documentary about women in the film industry. Numerous notable actresses and female directors share their thoughts....
Alpha to Omega: Exposing 'The Osterman Weekend'
Character: Self
Testimony of the cast, the producers and other participants of the shootings of "The Osterman Weekend"....
Open Season
Character: Rachel Rowen
When the television ratings machines suddenly malfunction, public television suddenly, but mistakenly, soars to #1 in this humorous satire....
Trial & Error
Character: Katherine Woodfield
The young and ambitious district attorney Peter Hudson is convinced that the defendant Andrew Barnes in his current case is guilty, and that winning the case could help him much on his way to become vice-governour of Philadelphia. So he doesn't think twice about influencing witnesses. Only five years later - now head of the Department of Public Prosecution - when he receives a pledge for retrial, he gets doubts and starts investigating again... even risking his career....
The Men's Club
Character: Sarah (uncredited)
Seven men have a group session and share their feelings on women, love, life and work....