Helen Faul

Helen Faul (b. 28/03/1925 – d. Pretoria, 13/09/1999) was an actress.

Biography

In the late 1940s Helen Faul appeared in three Afrikaans-language films, namely Die Skerpioen (Arthur Bennett/1946), Die Kaskenades van Dokter Kwak (Pierre de Wet/1948) and Sarie Marais (C. Francis Coley/1949). In the latter she played the title role opposite Johann Nell, who had also acted with her in Die Skerpioen. Prior to this she had appeared on the stage in the farce Piet se Tante (1946), produced by Jan Perold for the Johannesburgse Afrikaanse Amateur Toneelspelers, followed by The Taming of the Shrew (1948) for the Johannesburg Repertory Players, as well as an Afrikaans translation of The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1948). The latter was produced by Gwen ffrangçon-Davies, who was instrumental in getting her a British Council scholarship to study at the prestigious Old Vic School of Drama in Bristol. She travelled to England in October 1949, where subsequently she married fellow actor Willem Loots, who had arrived there earlier that year to work as a reporter at Broadcasting House.

In 1952 she appeared on the stage in Utrecht in The Netherlands, when an Afrikaans theatre group staged Uys Krige’s Die Wit Muur. Other stage performances in South Africa followed, included Taubie Kushlick’s production of Dial M for Murder (1954), Bitter Einde (1955), directed by Anna Neethling-Pohl for the JAATS, Nina (1955), produced by Ruth Oppenheim at the Windmill Theatre, and The Affair (1963), staged by Taubie Kushlick at the Civic Theatre in Johannesburg and at the Aula in Pretoria for PACT, with George Vollaire, Colin Fish and Fiona Fraser also in the cast. She also did radio work, notably in the title role in Saint Joan (1948), produced by visiting director Noel Iliff. She and Loots were divorced in 1958 and in 1971 she married Hendrik Cornelis du Toit.