Helene Costello

 Helene Costello (June 21, 1906 – January 26, 1957)

Born in New York City, Costello was the youngest daughter of the prominent stage and pioneering film actor Maurice Costello and his actress wife Mae Costello. She had an older sister Dolores who also became an actress and would go on to marry John Barrymore. Although she had been appearing on screen since her early childhood, Costello was selected as a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1927, a promotional campaign sponsored by the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers in the United States, which honored thirteen young women each year who they believed to be on the threshold of movie stardom. In 1928, Costello co-starred in the first all-talking full-length feature film Lights of New York. Later that same year, she was released from her contract with Warner Bros. after she refused to star as a leading lady opposite Rin Tin Tin. Costello's final substantial role was opposite her sister Dolores in the all-star Technicolor musical revue The Show of Shows (1929). Costello and her sister performed in the "Meet My Sister" musical number. After the advent of sound, Costello's career declined reportedly because her voice did not record well. She was also beset with personal problems including illnesses, an addiction to drugs and alcohol, three divorces, a public custody battle with her third ex-husband and financial difficulties. Costello was married four times, each marriage ending in divorce.

On January 24, 1957, Costello was admitted to Patton State Hospital under the assumed name of Adrienne Costello for treatment for a drug and alcohol addiction. She died there two days later of pneumonia. She is buried at Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles, in an unmarked grave, near her family.